Regional Security Structures In Asia

Kapor argues that explanations of international relations in Asia in the post-Second World War period have relied too much on the Cold War as a key explanatory factor, and have not given enough emphasis to the useful concepts of 'regional power formation', 'conflict formation' and 'conflict resolution'. The author outlines these concepts and goes on to elaborate on them, and to apply them to three key Asian regions - northeast, southeast, and south Asia - discussing practical strategic issues in an historical perspective and arguing that these concepts, and other concepts which he discusses, are extremely helpful in making sense of the complex pattern of international relations in Asia.

We cannot expect in East Asia over the foreseeable future to see the sort of conflation of sovereign states that has occurred in Europe. We must anticipate that, for the foreseeable future, the requirement will be for the sensible management and containment of competitive instincts. The establishment of a multilateral security body in East Asia that includes all the key players, and which the major powers invest with the authority to tackle the shaping of the regional security order, remains a critical piece of unfinished business.

This book provides a summation of many of the key points and insights that emerged during the first meeting of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific Confidence and Security Building Measures Working Group in Washington, D.C., in October 1994.

The book examines ASEAN's mechanisms in managing challenges and threats to regional security. Its extensive analyses of the ASEAN story of managing regional security cover the different phases of ASEAN's development as a regional organization and explore the perceptible changes that have occurred in regional mechanisms of conflict management. The book also examines the roles of relevant actors beyond the states of ASEAN and the key interactions that have evolved over time, which have been instrumental in moving regional mechanisms beyond the ASEAN way. The book argues that the ASEAN way has not been impervious to change. As the association finds its way through periods of crises and continues to confront the many challenges ahead, ASEAN and its mechanisms are already being transformed beyond the narrow confines of the modalities associated with the ASEAN way. The changes in the political and security landscape of the region, as well as the democratic transitions taking place in some member states, have set the stage for a much more dynamic set of regional actors and processes that bring into question the kind of regionalism that is now taking place in the region. the way regionalism is changing in Southeast Asia.

The topic of this book deals with a highly relevant empirical issue: East asian security and the dynamics of the respective governance structure or architecture are not only of regional but of global concern. Since the pivot of the American pivot to East Asia and other external actor ́s responses to it the security architecture has changed in form, size and function. In order to analyze and explain these changes, hypotheses derived from IR middle range theories (i.e. soft and hard balancing) will be applied to cases of bilateral and multilateral security governance in East Asia.

The September 2001 terrorist attacks shocked the world. But what did they change? In this book Asia specialists from academe and policy think tanks assess the impact of 9/11 on the Asia Pacific. Drawing on unique fieldwork, access to a wide range of documents and inside expertise, the authors consider how old geo-strategic and cultural fault lines have been overlaid with new security threats from state and non-state actors. With chapters on specific countries and regions, defense policies, terrorism, and current and potential conflict zones, this collection critically examines the Asia Pacific region's post-9/11, as well as post-Iraq war, security architecture.

This book contains the most comprehensive and critical account available of the evolution of The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) norms and the viability of the ASEAN way of conflict management.