PEACE AND SECURITY IN THE POST-COLD WAR ASIA PACIFIC REGION

Carolina G. Hernandez, Professor of Political Science, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City

Introduction

A highly fluid and flexible regional strategic environment in the Asia Pacific region was one of the major consequences of the removal of the Cold War overlay that defined superpower relations and the global strategic environment. Site of the most economically dynamic region in the world, the Asia Pacific faces the challenge of moderating the destabilizing impact of strategic fluidity and flexibility, and forging a new arrangement to ensure that peace and security continue to define the region. Aware that sources of tension and conflict which were allowed to recede into the background during the Cold War are likely to resurface as they have in other parts of the world, regional states have begun to take measures including those some of them previously avoided. Among these measures are the adoption of regional dialogue mechanisms for the management of conflict, whether general or specific, the generation of regional codes of conduct for inter-state behaviour and the expansion and deepening of regional cooperation, including enhanced security cooperation.

There has also been a marked ascendance of economic issues in the regional and bilateral agenda of regional states, leading some to speculate on the likely replacement of geopolitics by geo-economics and a more benign interpretation of inter-state relations. There is the belief that because states have put primacy in domestic economic development, they would be less prone to undertake provocative action that would disrupt peace and security, the very environment that is hospitable to investments and economic development. While exaggerated, the increasing importance attached to economic issues by states in the region cannot be ignored, as well as the apparent preponderant influence economics has played in the foreign policy behaviour of key states in the Asia Pacific.

The recession of military challenges to the security of states has also enabled them to appreciate other sources of security challenges. Scholarly and technical studies linking ecological destruction to sustainable development have driven home the point East Asians have earlier articulated, namely that security is comprehensive. The demand for human resources of economic development have also facilitated population movements across the region and elsewhere to such an extent that it is now recognized as a new security challenge to be addressed. International terrorism, the spread of highly deadly diseases like AIDS, drug trafficking, etc. have joined the ranks of new security issues in the post-Cold War era.

Given this altered regional environment, the question of peace and security gains new significance as the responses for their effective management require instruments other than the use of military force. This paper seeks to analyse (1) the challenges to post-Cold War regional peace and security, (2) how peace and security issues are being responded to by regional states, and (3) the future prospects of regional peace and security in the Asia Pacific. A special emphasis on ASEAN's efforts and roles in post- Cold War peace and security in the region will be made in recognition of its growing importance in regional affairs.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 751