Cooperative Security in the Asia-Pacific: The ASEAN Regional Forum

ISBN-13: 9780415460521 / Angielski / Twarda / 2009 / 280 str.

Jurgen Haacke;Noel M. Morada

Opis

This book offers the most comprehensive analysis yet of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which remains the foremost dialogue forum for the promotion of cooperative security in the Asia-Pacific. Contributors focus on the perspectives and roles of the key players in the ARF - ASEAN, the United States, China, Japan, and Australia - and discuss to what extent these participants have shaped the Forum's institutional development and affected its achievements and prospects against the backdrop of the evolving regional security architecture. They also examine in depth how participants have used the Forum to respond to a range of important transnational security issues and challenges, including terrorism and maritime security, as well as disaster relief. This work also explores how, despite the difficulties in reaching a new consensus regarding the collective pursuit of preventive diplomacy, some activist participants have succeeded in bringing about a notable, albeit incipient, 'practical turn' in the ARF's security cooperation. This book will appeal to students of South-East Asian Politics, Asian Security Studies and International Relations in general.

This book provides an in-depth study of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which is the only multilateral vehicle of cooperative security bringing together all the world’s major powers: the United States, China, Japan, India, Russia, and the European Union. It is also the most inclusive forum for intergovernmental security dialogues in the Asia-Pacific region, and the only such forum nominally led by a group of largely small or aspirant middle powers, as well as 'weak' states - namely, the ASEAN countries.

The volume has four basic objectives: (1) to offer an update on how the ARF has pursued its original agenda, involving confidence-building and preventive diplomacy, and the extent to which the dialogues have become ‘institutionalised’; (2) to analyze the perspectives of the major powers and ASEAN on the ARF’s usefulness as a vehicle of cooperative security; (3) to assess the extent to which ARF participants have collectively securitized transnational challenges, especially terrorism, maritime threats and the trafficking of small arms and light weapons; and (4) to evaluate the ARF’s present role within the broader security architecture of the Asia-Pacific and participants’ success at reconciling the forum’s initial aims and objectives with developing a credible response to transnational challenges. The book thus offers an account of the contemporary relevance of the ARF in Asia-Pacific regional security.

This book will appeal to students of South-East Asian Politics, Asian Security Studies, and International Relations in general. 

Recenzje

'It is full of empirical detail and sophisticated analysis of the complex security environment of the Asia-Pacific region. The book’s main strength is its readability: jargon expressions are explained well and the authors make the effort to ensure that their main points are understood. The ordering of the chapters also allows people without a background on the ARF to understand the context around which the discussions in the more complex chapters revolve ... the book is an outstanding addition to the literature on the ARF and security co-operation' - Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies (ASEAS), 3 (2) 2010, 290-291

Spis treści

1. The ASEAN Regional Forum and Cooperative Security: Introduction Jürgen Haacke and Noel M. Morada  2. The ASEAN Regional Forum: Origins and Evolution Noel M. Morada  3. The United States and the ASEAN Regional Forum: A Delicate Balancing Act Brad Glosserman  4. China’s Membership of the ARF and the Emergence of an East Asian Diplomatic and Security Culture Christopher R. Hughes  5. Japan and the ASEAN Regional Forum: From Enthusiasm to Disappointment Takeshi Yuzawa  6. Australia-Japan-U.S. Trilateral Strategic Dialogue and the ARF: Extended Bilateralism or A New Minilateral Option? Kuniko Ashizawa  7. The Accidental Driver: ASEAN in the ARF Rizal Sukma  8. The ASEAN Regional Forum and Transnational Challenges: Little Collective Securitization, Some Practical Cooperation Jürgen Haacke  9. The ASEAN Regional Forum and Counter-Terrorism Noel M. Morada  10. Maritime Security and the ARF: Why the Focus on Dialogue Rather than Action? JN Mak  11. Securitisation Practices in Indonesia and the Philippines and their Impact on the Management of Security Challenges in ASEAN and the ARF David A. Boyd and Jörn Dosch  12. The ARF and Cooperative Security: More of the Same? Jürgen Haacke and Noel M. Morada