Regional Security in Southeast Asia

This paper intends to explore the significance of Philippine society, culture, and interactions in today's multicultural and globalized world. As an epistemological approach, it aims to present an informative point of view on the Philippines' multifaceted relationships with other nation-states and cultural communities. Further, the paper seeks to present a preliminary analysis to introduce the two countries - Nepal and the Philippines - and their burgeoning and thriving diplomatic and cultural linkages. Because of the vast geographical, cultural, and political differences between the two countries: Nepal is situated in South Asia and the Philippines in Southeast Asia. The paper clings to the admittance that a limited extensive literature probes into the two nation-states. Nepal and the Philippines are rarely associated with historical parallelism, global trade, diplomatic ties, and migration. In addition to providing macro-perspectives and drawing from the literature of existing Nepal-Philippine relationships, the paper shares in-person narratives of the author during his brief stay in Nepal. Thereby providing a glimpse of how a Filipino perceives the Nepalese worldview. In view of this, the paper aims to expand the existing knowledge on depicting and analyzing the role of Nepal in the Philippines and the significance of the Philippines in Nepal.

Religious experience  is a dimension of human experience which deals with the interpretation of concrete events according to evaluative categories. This is rooted in the essence of religion itself whose task is to provide an explanation of nature comprehensible to an individual or a collectivity in terms of the meaning it provides. Thus, religious experience is distinguishable from scientific experience in that, while both depart from and interpret concrete events, their purposes vary. The former aims to reach a higher mystic state the attainment of which symbolically unites  the individual or the collectivity with the environment whereas the latter bifurcates the two by regarding mind and matter separate.
          The task of the following discussion is to elaborate on this religious perception. Accordingly, an effort shall be made to define the categories of knowledge and method in Islam, those in Philippine Islam in particular. In this regard, the nature of religious experience shall be explored and defined in the context of contemporary efforts by Filipino Muslims (or Moros) to search for a "national" identity and, in addition, the experience of the Ummah in Philippine history shall be traced.
          This discussion should particularly be surprising and  insightful to those who tend to regard Islam as rigid or unyielding particularly with regard to the commonly misused and misunderstood concept of jihad, which means also intellectual exertion, not simply physical. If one were to engage in a play in words and reversed the title of this piece to read "Secular Experience in the Formation of the United States Empire", and examine the role of force and violence -- including torture -- in this process from the beginning to this day, one might have a more somber view towards Islam.

Since 2000, military spending has skyrocketed in Southeast Asia. Arms transfers too, with regional countries acquiring state-of-the-art submarines and fighter aircrafts. Is the region therefore home to an arms race, fuelled by China’s rise and by the US rebalancing? Considering intra-regional transformations and national contexts, these strategic and military evolutions appear as not only complex, but also very different one from another, in their scope and drivers. More than geopolitics, it may be History that sheds most light on the rationales behind the current military dynamics in Southeast Asia, which convincingly express how regional elites perceive and defend their interests in the domestic field as well as in the international arena.

Este trabalho busca analisar a Guerra da Coreia, sua relação com o impasse quanto à implementação dos mísseis THAAD e a Cúpula de Cingapura de 2018, tentando entender, ainda, como esses eventos se relacionam às grandes potências desde sua criação, a perpetuação e possível resolução do conflito. Abstract This essay seeks to analyse The Korean War, its relation to the THAAD dispute and the 2018 Singapore Summit and what is the world's great powers part in the creation, perpetuation and possible resolution of the conflict.

The chapter deals with peculiarities of establishment of the regional
nuclear nonproliferation regime in the Asia Pacific as well as its condition in the modern period. From the standpoint of research methodology, the paper actively utilizes advances of the international regimes theory. The author analyses premises of the formation of different aspects
comprising nuclear nonproliferation system in the Asia Pacific region,
from military and politics (e.g. positive security assurances provided
to NNWSs) on out to economy (in particular, with regard to the situation
on the nuclear energy and raw materials market). Special attention is paid
to the pressing problems of nuclear nonproliferation, NWFZs in the region and their functioning and role of the nuclear factor on the agenda
of the regional organisations. In spite of certain legal discrepancies intrinsic to the nonproliferation regime in the APR, states of the region
make a significant contribution to nonproliferation of nuclear weapons
and disarmament globally.

The form of Islam normatively understood and practised in Malaysia, i.e. Malaysian Islam, has undergone myriad changes since the 1970s as a result of gradual Salafization. Powered by Saudi Arabian largesse and buoyed by the advent of the Internet, this new wave of Salafization has eclipsed an earlier Salafi trend that spawned the Kaum Muda reformist movement. Recent surveys suggest that there has been a rise in the level of extremism among Muslims in Malaysia. While the majority is far from being enamoured by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Wahhabi-Salafi doctrine that ISIS claims to represent in unadulterated form does appeal to many of them following the decades-long Salafization of Islam in the country. This tallies with media reports on increasing numbers of Malay-Muslim youth harbouring an attraction towards radical Islamist movements such as ISIS. Salafization, referring to a process of mindset and attitudinal transformation rather than the growth of Salafi nodes per se, is not restricted to individuals or groups identified as “Salafi”, but rather affects practically all levels of Malay-Muslim society, cutting across political parties, governmental institutions and non-state actors. It has resulted in Islamist, rather than Islamic, ideals increasingly defining the tenor of mainstream Islam in Malaysia, with worrying consequences for both intra-Muslim and inter-religious relations. Responses to the Wahhabi-Salafi onslaught from the Malay-Muslim ruling elite in Malaysia have been ambivalent, and have had weak counteracting effects on the Salafization process.

The South China Sea has sea lanes of global significance, rich fishing grounds, and potentially vast oil and gas reserves. ASEAN members are in conflict over China’s claims in the area, but are working towards a binding code of conduct. Unity within ASEAN and continued diplomatic efforts will be essential to preventing disputes leading to armed conflict. By solving its internal inconsistencies and achieving stability, ASEAN will be able to promote its centrality in the region’s security architecture as well as its importance in the global arena.

While the arbitration was absolutely pivotal to the Philippine strategy in dealing with China in the
South China Sea, it was always just one of several approaches that the Philippine government under Aquino employed. Even after the case had been filed, Manila continued its efforts to seek diplomatic resolution through the ASEAN-China dialogue on a Code of Conduct. It also sought stronger security ties with its traditional ally – the United States – as well as receiving the support of other friendly governments such as Japan, Australia and the Republic of Korea for capability-building for maritime security. However, there were two other strategies that the Aquino government chose not to pursue.
One was to engage China in direct dialogue. Refraining from dialogue seems logical if the Philippines feared that China would use this to pressure it into withdrawing from the arbitration case (as China tried to do up to the very last minute). On the other hand, the Aquino government
could have used bilateral dialogue to press China to back down, leveraging support from its allies and its leading role on this issue within ASEAN, if it was interested in preserving its relationship
with China. Without this bilateral platform, however, the arbitration could not be interpreted in
any other way than as a hostile act. The other

In terms of legal importance, the “final and binding” arbitration ruling may be the most significant decision to come out relating to the implementation of UNCLOS as the
“constitution of the oceans”. However, in terms of political-diplomatic utility for a region learning to manage ties with a rising power, or its function of promoting Philippine interests including security and access to resources, it may have a relatively short shelf life.

Threat serves as an impetus in the foundation, development, revitalization, and waning of the contemporary Philippine-United States alliance. Using Stephen Walt’s balance of threat theory as the analytical framework, this study proves that, historically, the dynamics of the Philippine-U.S. alliance revolves around the interaction of threatcentric issues and the member-state’s response. Threat serves as the prime mover of the alliance; foreign aid, ideological solidarity, and institutional penetration do not guarantee the alliance stability. They do, however, serve as critical factors in the alliance management. Shared or unshared existential threats with external overtones have a greater impact on the alliance. Moreover, internal security threats affect alliance efficiency. A coordinated approach is needed to confront and master them. 
The Philippine Communist Insurgency of the CPP-NPA-NDF, the South China Sea Dispute with China, the ambiguity of 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty provisions including its executory mechanisms, and U.S. “strategic ambivalence” in the case of conflict serve as disconnecting factors of the Philippine-U.S. alliance. These factors created and continue to create friction between the Philippines and the United States. This study recommends that the allies must align their threat assessments, resolve or manage disconnecting threats, and then address the ambiguity of the agreement through further research and deeper strategic discourse.

近年南海领海争端加剧以及中国与日俱增的经济影响，一直在激化亚细安内部的分歧。各成员国立场的差异，从今年六月和七月分别在云南和老挝举办的多国会议上可见。亚细安成员国当时要在南海主权问题上建立基本共识所面对的困难特别明显。今年九月在万象举行的亚细安－中国高峰会议上，各方似乎也只能暂时回避异议，再度同意遵守已有的海军《海上意外相遇规则》(Code for Unexpected Encounters at Sea，简称CUES)。除非亚细安成员国正视并着手整合其组织的内部运作和操作，这个历经冷战和后冷战时期的东南亚区域组织恐怕会面临被现实淘汰的可能。为了开拓亚细安的未来，成员国或许需考虑如何推动内部协调、理顺决策过程，甚至调整心态接受其他东南亚区域组织的存在等改革方向。

（見頁52-55）

This book examines why and how small powers link their security interests and trade agendas, and how security threats influence the facilitation and outcome of their trade activities. In doing so, it analyses the increasingly complex connections between trade and security, demonstrating how these linkages affect the overall security of four small but important states in East Asia. Focusing on the role of high levels of internal and external insecurities, marginal geo-economic size and peripheral geopolitical position, and multidimensional and multidirectional security contexts and threats, the author concludes that for every security enhancement that a linkage creates a consequent security risk is generated. In other words, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines are effectively trading their security. This innovative book will appeal to political scientists, economists, and security and trade experts.

Closely associated with China’s growing prominence in international politics are discussions about how to understand Chinese history, and how such perspectives inform the way a stronger China may relate to the rest of the world. This article examines two narratives as cases, and considers how they fit against more careful historical scholarship. The first is the nationalist narrative dealing with Qing and Republican history, and the second is the narrative on the Chinese world order. Analyses of Chinese nationalism tend to see a more powerful China as being more assertive internationally, based in part on a belief in the need to address and overcome past wrongs. Studies of historical regional systems in Asia point to the role that a peaceful ‘Confucian’ ethos played in sustaining a stable Chinese-led order, and highlight the promise it holds for checking regional and international tensions. The two perspectives create an obvious tension when trying to understand China’s rise, which can suggest that using historical viewpoints to understand contemporary developments may be doomed to incoherence. This article argues that difficulties in applying knowledge of the past to analyses of China’s role in contemporary world politics indicate a relative inattentiveness to Chinese and Asian history. It illustrates how the nature of China’s rise may be more contingent on the external environment that it faces than popular received wisdom may indicate. The article suggests that a more extensive engagement with historical research and historiography can augment and enrich attempts to appreciate the context surrounding China’s rise.

This paper aims to answer the question presented in its title by investigating whether and how a peaceful resolution to the Rohingya crisis can be imagined anytime soon, considering the deep-rooted nature of the conflict between nationalist Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine State. If there is to be a resolution, I put forth the idea that ASEAN may be the most well-suited institutional actor to promote such a resolution because of its past successes in dealing with the Myanmar government and because it is in its best interest as well as in the interest of Myanmar, its fellow member. I will explain the root and direct causes of the Rohingya problem, a local problem that has deteriorated to become a humanitarian disaster. I will also show how this national problem is leading to a regional security crisis. Finally, I aim to demonstrate that the Rohingya crisis is challenging the international community since neither the national polity, nor the regional association have so far been willing or able to protect the Rohingya community from crimes against humanity. My paper will consist of two distinct parts, each aiming to tackle the above issues and to answer a main question: 1) How is the Rohingya crisis to be explained or understood? 2) Who or what can bring a peaceful resolution to a national conflict which has regional and international implications?

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is widely supposed by theorists and commentators of many persuasions to have elevated the principle of absolute non-interference in the internal affairs of states into a central pillar of Southeast Asian regionalism. Non-interference is also criticised for retarding ASEAN from taking meaningful action over economic crises, problematic members like Myanmar, and transnational security threats. This article critiques this consensus, arguing that the norm has never been absolute, but has rather been upheld or ignored in line with the interests of the region's dominant social forces. While the principle formally remains in place despite such challenges and serious instances of violation, it is now subject to competing demands and contestation.
[the full version is available via my website, http://www.leejones.tk; for the fullest account, see my book, 'ASEAN, Sovereignty and Intervention in Southeast Asia' (Palgrave, 2012) http://www.leejones.tk/asean_sovereignty_intervention.html]

Leo Suryadinata's The Rise of China and the Chinese Overseas: A Study of Beijing's Changing Policy in Southeast Asia and Beyond is a very welcome addition to the discussion of ties between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and ethnic Chinese living beyond its borders. Suryadinata makes the case in the book that as the PRC becomes more globally prominent, it is increasingly blurring lines in its treatment of PRC citizens and non-PRC citizen ethnic Chinese overseas. This claim comes amid allegations of growing PRC efforts to mobilize ethnic Chinese communities abroad to serve its national interests, be they economic, political, or strategic. These concerns are not new and are in fact a throwback to the past. They give the book an added timeliness and importance.
For much of the Cold War, ethnic Chinese communities in non-communist parts of Southeast Asia faced the suspicion of being a possible subversive fifth column for the PRC, especially if they seemed left-leaning. Such perspectives diminished as the PRC engaged in economic reform from the late 1970s, eschewed radical revolution, and passed a nationality law in 1980 clearly demarcating non-PRC citizen ethnic Chinese abroad from PRC citizens. Recent reports of PRC efforts to lobby and police opinion in foreign countries using members of local ethnic Chinese communities ranging from Europe and North America to Oceania and Southeast Asia have again brought these long-dormant issues to the fore.1 This is an issue on which Suryadinata has previously written, and he provides readers a brief reminder of these themes in Chapter 3.2 [End Page 151]
An Awkward Closeness
Suryadinata organizes the book into four parts. Part I (Chapters 1–3) discusses the PRC's rise to prominence from the 1980s till the present, changes in ethnic Chinese communities outside the PRC, and the organization of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office (OCAO). The OCAO is the government body responsible for managing official ties with ethnic Chinese communities outside the PRC, be they PRC citizens abroad or ethnic Chinese who do not hold PRC citizenship. Within these pages, Suryadinata introduces his main observation—that Beijing seems to be reverting to its older policy of reducing distinctions between PRC citizens and non-PRC citizen ethnic Chinese in foreign jurisdictions. The key motivation behind this move, according to Suryadinata, is PRC efforts to advance and protect its interests and concerns overseas.
Part II (Chapters 4–8) examines how the PRC responds officially to events outside its borders that affect ethnic Chinese and PRC citizens. Each chapter contains a case where ethnic Chinese come under threat from developments outside China and assess the PRC position. Beijing's reaction to the 1998 anti-Chinese race riots in Indonesia and violence in the South Pacific, Middle East, and Africa indicates a willingness to evacuate PRC citizens, especially those who work for PRC state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The 2014 anti-Chinese riots in Vietnam, triggered by a Beijing-initiated escalation in its maritime dispute with Hanoi, suggests that the PRC is not above placing its citizens overseas in danger for the pursuit of more important interests.
However, contrasting PRC responses to incidents involving ethnic Chinese in Malaysia and Myanmar point toward an evolution in Beijing's position. Beijing responded to alleged ill-treatment of its citizens by Malaysian police in 2005 as well as political pressure, even violence, toward ethnic Chinese Myanmar citizens in the Kokang region along the PRC border in 2015 with diplomatic entreaties. Such actions resulted from Beijing's desire to maintain positive official relations with Malaysia and Myanmar. Threats against ethnic Chinese Malaysians in 2015, in comparison, saw the then-PRC ambassador to Malaysia publicly expressing an intention to protect these co-ethnics even though this was tantamount to intervention and divided local opinion. This step appears to portend an effort by Beijing to extend influence over non-PRC citizen ethnic Chinese communities overseas, even at the risk of upsetting foreign governments.
The next four chapters in Part III examine the ways domestic considerations in the...

The chapter discusses the long-running conflict in the Southern Philippines between the Bangsa Moro and the Philippine government. The conflict stands in contrast to other intrastate conflicts in ASEAN as it has long attracted the attention and involvement of the international community. The chapter traces the origins of the conflict, the rise of secessionist movements and the various peace processes to the present day that have attempted to find a peaceful resolution. In particular, it focuses on the role of external international actors in ameliorating incompatibilities between the two sides and their fundamental role in the various peace processes, such as mediation and the formulation of peace frameworks leading eventually to the 2014 Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).

Since 9/11, Southeast Asia began to attract U.S. attention and became the U.S. second front against terrorism. Under the influence of neo-conservativism, the Bush administration changed Washington’s “benign neglect” strategy against Southeast Asia and slowly led the U.S. back to the region. Under the Obama administration, the Washington has placed its emphasis on “complete return to Southeast Asia” and adopted a smart power strategy that applies both the carrot and the stick at the same time. The Obama administration seeks to balance China’s growing regional influence, advance U.S. status in East Asia and respond to issues such as global terrorism, financial crisis and climate change. This article seeks to address U.S. policy changes in Southeast Asia and identify important factors that affect policy transformation. The authors examine the policy differences and transitions between the Bush and Obama administration.

The Ambalat block dispute between Indonesia and Malaysia has been the most controversial issue between the two countries since konfrontasi came to an end in 1966. The dispute arose from the two country’s overlapping claims to sovereign rights in the oil rich Ambalat region and intensified in the first decade of the twenty-first century when a naval stand-off between the two sides threatened to escalate the dispute into a military conflict. However, numerous measures, practices and approaches were used to manage, although not resolve, the dispute peacefully. The chapter provides a comprehensive background to the origins and development of the dispute, the factors driving its escalation and subsequent de-escalation, and discusses the various short, medium and long-term management conflict mechanisms employed by the two sides that have mitigated their incompatibilities and successfully circumvented conflict.

'Kingdom's Edge' is a collection of photographs by photo-journalist Richard Humphries, focusing on Thailand's troubled deep South. The collection was compiled over a ten-year period.

The introduction to the collection is by Gerard McDermott.

'The collection captures the colourful and, at times, clashing identities and traditions of different peoples living together, yet separately; their histories and cultures sometimes overlapping, and sometimes conflicting. Some of the photos use allusions, symbolism and subtle references, while others make a virtue of plainness and immediacy. Richard's work maintains either a respectful intimacy or a sympathetic distance: at times, raw and immediate; at other times, detached.' - Gerard McDermott

This study argues that the post-Cold War changes in Turkish foreign and security policy (FSP) can best be understood as the regionalization of strategic and security outlook in Turkey. Here regionalization refers to two interrelated processes: first, the process whereby security interest definitions and threat perceptions in Turkey have gained an increasingly regional character, and second the process whereby Turkey has increasingly defined itself as an activist regional power. Yet, the current study takes issue with the widespread assumption that regionalist activism of Turkish FSP can only be appropriated to the recent Justice and Development Party governments. Rather, it argues that the regionalist activism observed in the 2000s should be conceived as the second regionalist turn in Turkish FSP. The first wave of regionalization began soon after the end of the Cold War and developed in parallel to the rise of the ‘region’ as a new unit of security in global politics. This study compares and contrasts these two regionalist eras with a view to exploring the post-Cold War regionalization of FSP in Turkey

United Nations has described the Muslim Rohingya ethnic group as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world. Over the years, the Rohingyas have clashed with the security forces of Myanmar, resulting in their deaths, internal displacements and migrations to other countries especially Bangladesh. Though they have a large population of 1.5million in Rakhine state, the Rohingyas are neither considered citizens of Myanmar nor Bangladesh-effectively rendering them stateless. The question that is relevant to ask is who are the Rohingyas? What is their identity? Where do they come from? What are their conditions and aspirations? What has been done and can be done about it? This paper explicates the identity question, and links that to the recurrent ethnic clashes in Rakhine state. The paper also identifies the bottlenecks that impede peace in Rakhine state, and offers recommendations for improving the security situation in Arakan and the whole of Rakhine state.

中國與新加坡在建交前，雙邊關係發展就已有良好勢頭，然而去年圍繞南中國海主權爭議、美國「重返亞太」戰略等區域關鍵議題，中國與新加坡各自立場顯現分歧，雙方外交摩擦也較以往頻繁。原本計劃在2016年底召開的兩國最高級別合作機制會議「中新雙邊合作聯合委員會」被推遲至本月召開，這被外界視為中新關係步入低谷的反映；適逢美國新任總統特朗普履職，其尚不明朗的亞太政策也為地區局勢平添了更多變數。本次訪談邀請了新加坡國立大學政治學助理教授莊嘉穎博士（Dr. Chong Ja Ian），莊博士對東亞比較政治、亞太地區國際關係、中星（新）雙邊外交等領域有深入研究，在訪談中他就新加坡對特朗普政府外交政策的預期，及中星（新）雙邊關係發展等問題分享了獨到見解。

http://www.takungpao.com.hk/finance/text/2017/0217/60595.html

Malaysia had looked to Japan to search for a sustainable and efficient
development model under the Look East Policy (LEP) initiative launched in 1982 by former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. At the time, this ideal formula, intended for the betterment of the Malaysian economy, was designed to incorporate the Japanese attitude to work, their moral values, progressive norms, and work ethics. Since then, more than 15,000 Malaysians expatriated to Japan due to this very purpose, and bilateral relations between them have blossomed. In this paper,
the LEP is revisited, and Japan-Malaysia relations will be analysed to understand the change and continuity aspects of this policy in the past 35 years. Furthermore, this paper will also seek to forecast the challenges Japanese and Malaysian institutions may face in establishing cooperation under the second phase of this policy after
35 years of success. Besides, exploring a new paradigm for Japan and Malaysia’s relations as proposed by the former Prime Minister, Mohd Najib Tun Abdul Razak.

Armed conflict between states in Southeast Asia has been relatively rare, especially since 1979. The most recent exception to this pattern was a border dispute between Cambodia and Thailand that turned violent in 2008 and remained militarized for more than three years. Existing studies of this long-standing conflict have concentrated on explaining the upsurge in violence between 2008 and 2011, but have tended to ignore that fighting was quickly contained each time clashes occurred. This article provides a different perspective and asks how the dispute was managed short of large-scale armed violence. To answer this question, the author adopts an agency-focused perspective that emphasizes the role of critical actors who worked to de-escalate the conflict. Based on field research conducted in Cambodia and Thailand, as well as consulting primary and secondary sources, the author adopts a historical narrative that revisits critical periods from the 1950s onwards and argues that relevant actors in both Cambodia and Thailand had long-standing incentives to avoid escalating the conflict. Two elements were critical: first, crucial actors including Cambodian and Thai bureaucrats, diplomats and members of the security and intelligence services developed an understanding of the problems inherent in defining their land border; and second, the establishment of personal contacts, even in the context of antagonistic relations. Together, these factors created possibilities for Cambodia and Thailand to cooperate in managing conflict and increased the willingness of both sides to exercise self-restraint.