Non Traditional Security In The Asia Pacific A Decade Of Perspectives

What is Non-Traditional Security? How have our understandings of security changed over the past decade? What are the dominant non-traditional security challenges we face in the world today?The concept of national security remains contested but our understanding of it continues to evolve as it is shaped by the world around us. From a globally dominant 'traditional' understanding of security during the Cold War characterised by a focus on countries and their militaries protecting their sovereignty to today, where non-military threats such as global pandemics, climate change, energy, to disasters threaten the wellbeing and livelihoods of people, communities, and the environment that form the backbone of society.The global dial has shifted towards a more comprehensive understanding of security that recognises these non-traditional security threats moving the focus away from solely the survival of the state to the empowerment and protection of people and the environment. This shift highlights the experiences of different individuals and communities, from civilians affected by war to irregular migrants moving from one place to the next, and what the world witnesses as efforts to empower and protect people and the environment.Indeed, comprehensive security has a long history in the post-colonial Asia-Pacific. Non-Traditional Security emerged after the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. It emerged as a way to recalibrate the ways governments engaged people and communities and developed pathways for countries in the region to cooperate.Non-Traditional Security in the Asia-Pacific: A Decade of Perspectives, an interdisciplinary collection, is essential reading for anyone interested in the developments of security with a focus on the dominant non-traditional security threats in the Asia-Pacific over the last decade — from advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and scholars, to policymakers at the local, national, regional, and international levels.

This work studies the non-traditional security agenda in the Asia-Pacific, focusing particularly on the dynamics of securitisation. It questions why and how some issues are securitised and examines the policy outcomes that derive from securitising these concerns. The conceptual discussion draws upon but also modifies the theory of securitisation and desecuritisation originally advanced by the Copenhagen School. The empirical study analyses Thailand's securitisation of drug trafficking, Singapore's combined securitisation of sea piracy and maritime terrorism, and Australia's securitisation of people smuggling. These various issues can be defined as forms of transnational crime. The case studies consider the rhetoric used by the three countries concerned as well as their policy responses at the unilateral, bilateral and multilateral level. READERSHIP: Academics, policy-makers and administrators, and those interested in the study of regionalism and regional security.

Drawing upon the concepts of securitization and de-securitization, this book brings together regional perspectives from across Asia to examine how challenging security issues are perceived and managed. It is a valuable contribution to both security and As

"The contributions to this volume, covering the areas of Globalisation and Security, Regional Institutions and Security, Governance in Plural Societies an Security, and Environmental Security, present stimulating analyses and insights to various non-traditional security issues that are of scholarly and policy relevance to Southeast Asia." -- BOOK JACKET.

Demonstrating that none of the various perspectives under review has emerged as the clear winner in the struggle for theoretical hegemony in security studies, this book shows that eclectic perspectives, like democratic realist institutionalism, can better explain peace and security in the Asian Pacific. The Asian Pacific has emerged as one of the most important regions in the world, causing scholars to pay increased attention to the various challenges, old and new, to peace and security there. Peace and Security in the Asia-Pacific: Theory and Practice is a comprehensive, critical review of the established theoretical perspectives relevant to contemporary peace and security studies in the light of recent experiences. Illuminating ongoing debates in the field, the book covers some 20 theoretical perspectives on peace and security in the Asian Pacific, including realist, liberal, socialist, peace and human security, constructivist, feminist, and nontraditional security studies. The first section of the book discusses perspectives in realist security studies, the second part covers perspectives critical of realism. The author's goal is to assess whether any of the perspectives found in nonrealist security studies are capable of undermining realism. His conclusion is that each theoretical perspective has its strengths and weaknesses, leaving eclecticism as the best way to understand the region's dynamics.

This volume argues that international security in the Asia-Pacific lends itself to contradictory analyses of centrifugal and centripetal trends. Transitional polycentrism is intrinsically awkward as a description of the security of states and their populations; it implies the loosening of state control and the emergence of newly asserted authority by mixed constellations of intergovernmental organizations and non-state actors. It implies a competition of agendas: threats to the integrity of borders and human security threats such as natural disasters, airliner crashes, and displacement by man-made pollution and food scarcity. Conversely, polycentrism could also imply a return to a more neo-realist oriented international order where great powers ignore ASEAN and steer regional order according to their perceived interests and relative military superiority. This book embraces these contradictory trends as a foundation of analysis and accepts that disorder can also be re-described from the perspective of studied detachment as polycentric order.

The conventional understanding of strategic issues in the modern world has been very much a Western-driven phenomenon. That is to say, Western strategists, thinkers and writers have tended to establish the principles of strategic concepts, and to develop theories around them. While there is utility in much Western strategic thought, it is also apt to note that some of it does not have full relevance or validity when applied to a regional setting that is far removed from the geographical boundaries of the Western world. In that connection, this volume is partly intended to serve as an antidote to much of the Western commentary on Asia-Pacific security issues by providing a range of perspectives on those issues from the Southeast Asian point of view. It offers a range of Southeast Asian perspectives on the multifaceted security issues that confront the Asia-Pacific region in the post-Cold War era. That there is no unitary perspective emanating from the region is symptomatic of the very fluid geopolitical situation that characterizes Asia-Pacific security, and, of equal import, the different schools of thought that analysts in the region have chosen to subscribe to.

Asia is challenged by a number of non-traditional security issues including the foodenergywater nexus, climate change, transnational crime, terrorism, disaster relief and economic performance. This volume categorizes and clarifies some key emerging issues in the area and looks at their interconnectedness and implications.The essays explore how non-traditional issues can manifest as security challenges, and the role of the state and military in dealing with these. Issue-based and area-specific, they rely on facts and interpretation of data, avoiding alarmist predictions. A nuanced and analytical approach into an uncharted area, this book will be essential for policymakers, researchers and students of security and strategic studies, foreign policy, sociology and political economy, as well as the general readers.