Zone of uncertainty: Canada and the security architecture in Asia pacific

Abstract

The Cold War in Asia and the Pacific was waged through an untidy set of bilateral relationships, but in the post‐Cold War period and in the absence of European‐style alliances this region has been left with few building blocks to reorient its security structures. This paper describes how in spite of this inauspicious environment, Canada and a number of other countries and regional organizations (Russia, South Korea, Mongolia, Australia, Japan, the United States, ASEAN) have made proposals — some more successful than others — and taken initiatives to improve the security architecture in Asia Pacific. The Canadian contribution to this search for increased regional stability was introduced in 1990 as the North Pacific Cooperative Security Dialogue. The focus of this proposal was not to transplant European models or institutions but to encourage the acceptance of a broader definition of security ‐ cooperative security — in regional dialogue.