Responses to Peace and Security Challenges in the Asia Pacific

Aware of these challenges to regional peace and security, states have resorted to several means to meet them more effectively over the past few years. Their responses to some of these challenges include the forging and redefinition of military security arrangements, the creation of dialogue mechanisms, the adoption of codes of conduct of inter-state behaviour, preventive diplomacy and confidence-building measures, the expansion of regional cooperation and the rise and increasing utility of track-two diplomacy.

A. Security Arrangements

The drawing down of the US forces from the Asia Pacific20 and their withdrawal from the Philippine bases in 1992 led to the forging of a number of ports of call, access rights and other defence-related arrangements between the US and a number of countries in ASEAN. Still linked by bilateral mutual defence agreements with the Philippines and Thailand, the US expanded or upgraded its security relationships through various defence-related agreements with Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and Thailand in an effort not to seriously undermine its capability to sustain a credible military presence in the region. Such a more widely distributed military presence was thought to compensate for the loss of the Philippine bases, an event that was regarded by the Bush administration "as a routine adjustment to the changing strategic environment in the Asia-Pacific" despite earlier warnings of the security implications of the loss of these bases for regional security.21

The review and reaffirmation of the US-Japan Security Treaty in April 1996 is a boost to regional security. Despite concerns aired in some quarters about the new arrangement's implications for Japan's future security role,22 it is a recognized fact in the region that this security relationship remains the backbone and core of the region's security as it assures the US commitment to regional security beyond the Cold War. The fact that it took place after the Taiwan Straits crisis of March 1996 and amid the unfortunate Okinawa incident indicates that there is a common recognition that threats to regional security remain a concern of both the US and Japan and that they are prepared to meet them through their bilateral security arrangement. This should help assuage continuing concern in this regard among regional states not able to provide for their security in the face of more powerful regional neighbours with hostile intentions. It also ensures that Japan's security role is not pursued in a unilateral manner.

Another important addition to the effort to meet the uncertainty of the post-Cold War strategic environment is the conclusion of the Australian- Indonesian Security Agreement in 1995. Unprecedented in their bilateral relations, the agreement was apparently wrapped in strict secrecy such that the two countries' foreign ministers were not even aware of it. There is the speculation that it was signed within the context of a rising China whose future role and foreign policy intentions remained unfathomable. This agreement signifies once again the attempt of states to undertake unprecedented measures for security cooperation due to the uncertainty of the contemporary regional strategic environment.

Date: 2015-01-11; view: 822