Non-Traditional Security Cooperation Research Articles

ASEAN, China and South China Sea: Alternative approach for security cooperation

This article analyzes the status quo and cooperation mechanism between ASEAN and China, mainly, the non-traditional security issues in the South China Sea space (SCS). The non-traditional security threats confronting the SCS are complex, diverse and enormous. Amongst those are transnational maritime crimes, marine disaster threat, marine ecological environmental threat, and resource scarcity. Recent trends have demonstrated that the established regimes between ASEAN and China, for non-traditional security cooperation in the SCS, are fragmented mainly due to the absence of integrated and long-term mechanisms. Three reasons hinder the acceleration of the cooperation process: interference from outside powers, insufficient mutual political trust between China and ASEAN members, claimants and divergence of interests in advancing the Code of Conduct (COC) in the SCS. This article aims to analyze the problems and the causes existing between China and ASEAN in dealing with non-traditional security cooperation. It also examines the effectiveness of the rules-based cooperation mechanisms and offers a few recommendations. It is argued that ASEAN and China should take advantage of the low sensitivity of non-traditional security issues and high-quality development of the One Belt and One Road Initiative, to construct an integrated framework based on rules jointly and order for multilateral non-traditional security cooperation in the SCS. Three possible and workable measures are recommended to facilitate non-traditional security cooperation between ASEAN and China in the SCS. Both sides, primarily ASEAN member claimants, pursue an excellent willingness to cooperate and could promote functional cooperation, promote successful maritime cooperation modes as long-term cooperation mechanisms in the SCS, focus on strengthening the capacity-building of marine governance, and comprehensively establish a multilateral cooperation mechanism in marine environmental protection and fishery resources management.

China’s Security Protection of Chinese Nationals in the Middle East

Strengthening the security protection of overseas Chinese is an important means for China to safeguard its overseas interests. The Middle East is in turmoil with frequent security incidents involving Chinese nationals and their assets. Ensuring the safety of Chinese natioanls is an important part of promoting the sound development of China and the Middle East relations. Drawing on the questionnaire survey, this paper examines the security threats and risks faced by Chinese nationals in some Middle Eastern states, and seeks to explore how China might enhance its security protection capability accordingly for Chinese nationals in the Middle East. It shows that the Chinese government has taken a series of measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese nationals, by strengthening the top-level design and mechanism coordination, improving the consular protection system and overseas evacuation capabilities, and participating in security governance and non-traditional security cooperation in the Middle East.

Russia Attacks and the International Order Strikes Back

Abstract Russia’s invasion of Ukraine violated international norms more than many thought imaginable in the year 2022, but the global effort to aid Kyiv has also exceeded expectations. Where does this leave the international order? In terms of peace and security, the order is not destroyed but fractured; global political economics are not de-coupled but more disjointed; and non-traditional security cooperation may be increasing but supply is falling further behind demand. Defeating Russian aggression is only the beginning of an uncertain order rebuilding project involving efforts at more coordinated trade standards, principled engagement with China, and institutionalized cooperation on transnational threats, including climate change.

The free and open Indo-Pacific versus the belt and road: spheres of influence and Sino-Japanese relations

Recent scholarship suggests that the thawing of diplomatic relations between China and Japan has caused a readjustment of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative and Tokyo’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Vision towards an emerging complementarity. Through careful process-tracking, elite interviews, and analysis of Chinese and Japanese primary sources, this article instead demonstrates how, outside of the East Asian spotlight, Sino-Japanese geo-economic competition continues in South Asia and the Mekong subregion, fueled by power politics and a mutual distrust of each other’s initiatives. On the basis of this evidence, this article qualifies Sino-Japanese interactions as a quest and denial for spheres of influence, whereas the Japanese government aims at denying Chinese spheres of influence. In doing so, this article highlights how Japanese proactivism from Sri Lanka to Thailand, via infrastructure and government financing, has become a driver of growing non-traditional security cooperation with India, the U.S., and Australia.

Non-traditional security cooperation between China and south-east Asia: implications for Indo-Pacific geopolitics

Abstract The ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ (FOIP) strategy, actively promoted by the United States with support from its allies and partners, is a significant geopolitical response to China's growing power and expanding influence in Asia and beyond. Beijing has adopted various new strategies to cope with the challenges related to FOIP. One of these strategies is to secure a robust relationship with south-east Asia in order to make these regional states either neutral to or less supportive of the Indo-Pacific vision. In addition to economic statecraft and soft power, Beijing believes that it can also tap into the domain of non-traditional security (NTS) to strengthen relations with this region to position itself better in the intensifying regional geopolitical competition. The article addresses the following question: what is the impact of China's NTS cooperation with south-east Asia on Beijing's geopolitical rivalry with other major powers in the Indo-Pacific region? The article argues that China's NTS cooperation with south-east Asian countries may help China maintain its geopolitical standing in the region, but it is unlikely to lead to any dramatic increase of China's strategic influence in the region. This essentially means that Beijing may be able to prevent ASEAN or most ASEAN member states from lending substantive and strong support to the Indo-Pacific construct, but it will not be able to stop ASEAN states from supporting some elements of the FOIP.

ASEAN-China Security Relations: Traditional and Non-Traditional Aspects

Both ASEAN and China used the concept of Non-Traditional Security (NTS) in order to pursue security diplomacy in the Asia Pacific. For ASEAN, NTS is an area of security cooperation that allows it to drive the agenda of security architectures involving extra-regional powers such as the ASEAN Defense Ministerial Meeting Plus (ADMM+) and ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). For China, NTS policy agenda allows it to gain acceptance among ASEAN member-states and an active role in the security agenda of ASEAN-led security architectures. The question that this article is pursuing is to what extent has ASEAN-China cooperation on NTS balanced between addressing the humanitarian aspect and the political objectives of security? This question is derived from the conceptual origin of NTS that stands on the importance of both the state and the individuals as the referent subjects of security. This article argues that ASEAN-China NTS cooperation emphasized more towards the strengthening of state’s capacity to deal with non-state actors’ transnational criminal activities, either for profit-seeking or subversive purposes. It is also apparent from evaluating the Memorandum of Understandings and Plans of Action between ASEAN and China that NTS cooperation is one China’s investments to engage a closer cooperation with ASEAN as well as a stronger presence in Southeast Asia’s strategic environment.

Narrative Alignment and Misalignment: NATO as a Global Actor as Seen from Australia and New Zealand

ABSTRACTIn the wake of the Afghan missions, this article assesses the appetite in Australia and New Zealand for an ongoing relationship with NATO. Australia and New Zealand share many commonalities in their cultural, political, and economic profiles. Yet their identities in the realm of defense and security differ subtly, which has important implications for the reception of NATO’s strategic narratives in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. Drawing on strategic narrative theory (SNT), we assess perceptions of NATO in Australia and New Zealand. By collecting and analyzing empirical data from political, academic, and military elites, we find that there is a keen desire for an on-going partnership with NATO, particularly in maintaining interoperability and in the area of “emerging security challenges.” Although the findings were mostly positive for NATO, New Zealand elites were more reticent about NATO involvement than those in Australia, where elites saw NATO and the Global Partnership as a potentially useful – if under-utilized – asset in areas of non-traditional security cooperation.

Changing Security Dynamics in East Asia: A Post-US Regional Order in the Making?

Introduction: Why strategic uncertainty? Elena Atanassova-Cornelis and Frans-Paul Van der Putten PART I: EVOLVING REGIONAL SECURITY ORDER IN EAST ASIA - KEY PERSPECTIVES 1. Theoretical Approaches to Asia's Changing Security Order Nick Bisley 2. East Asian Security, Policy Debates and American Leadership Robert Sutter 3. China's Approach to the US Role in East Asia: The Dynamics of Volatile Competition Shi Yinhong PART II: EAST ASIAN RESPONSES TO STRATEGIC UNCERTAINTY 4. 'Keeping the United States In': Japan and Regional Order in East Asia Kuniko Ashizawa 5. The US Security Role in South Korea: Issues that Test South Korean Confidence in the US Commitment Larry Niksch 6. Political Resolve and Strategic Uncertainty in Taiwan-US Relations Alexis Littlefield 7. New Strategic Uncertainty and Security Order in Southeast Asia Carlyle A. Thayer PART III: ALTERNATIVE MODELS OF REGIONAL SECURITY ORDER 8. A US-China Dual Leadership in East Asia? Quansheng Zhao 9. Non-Traditional Security Cooperation and Northeast Asian Regional Order Jaewoo Choo 10. Power Bumps on the Way to Regional Community: Asia's Mixed Security Logics Alice Ba Conclusion: A post-US regional order in the making? East Asia's security futures Frans-Paul van der Putten and Elena Atanassova-Corne

The EU, China, and Nontraditional Security: Prospects for Cooperation in the Mediterranean Region

As political instability challenges China’s growing interests in the Mediterranean region, the European Union might prove to be the right partner for Beijing. This essay assesses the prospects for EU-Chinese security cooperation in the region. A shared doctrinal concern with nontraditional security provides a solid foundation, as proved by antipiracy efforts in the Gulf of Aden. This paves the way for nontraditional security cooperation in the Mediterranean region, for instance in the field of noncombatant evacuation. Yet a crucial precondition is that the EU behaves more coherently, in order to be perceived by China as a reliable partner.

ASEAN's Environmental Challenges and Non-Traditional Security Cooperation: Towards a Regional Peacekeeping Force?

This article reflects on the prospect for an ASEAN peacekeeping force and regional security cooperation. I argue that progress on ‘soft’ security issues stands to facilitate a slow deepening of ‘hard’ security cooperation at the ASEAN level. Governments of ASEAN member states are still reluctant to develop a regional mechanism for conflict resolution, which they perceive to be a challenge to the norms of non-interference and state sovereignty. Yet, these norms are subject to dynamic shifts in the security environment that regional governments now have to manage. The establishment of mechanisms to address politically less controversial non-traditional security issues such as environmental challenges stands to further develop and consolidate military-to-military ties and deepen political trust among member states. An ASEAN standby force for emergency response and disaster relief has become a politically acceptable initiative and could set the stage for the development of an ASEAN peacekeeping force.

Beyond History: non-traditional security cooperation and the construction of Northeast Asian international society

This article takes the proposition that cooperation in the area of non-traditional security (NTS) can provide the essential window of opportunity for Northeast Asians to move beyond history. To demonstrate, it explores the development of NTS cooperation in Northeast Asia, paying particular attention to Sino–Japanese cooperation in the environmental and disaster areas. It then examines the relationship between NTS cooperation and the construction of a regional international society in Northeast Asia. It argues that the importance of NTS cooperation is twofold. First, in a region where historical animosities remain high, NTS issues can avoid sensitive areas and find common ground for cooperation that traditional security approaches would be unable to envisage. Second, NTS cooperation has turned people-to-people relations in a more prominent and conciliatory direction, and enhanced human security consideration, thus taking things further than the indirect consequences of functionalism.

Non-traditional Security Cooperation Model ---Take Macao as an Example

Non-traditional Security Cooperation Model ---Take Macao as an Example

Non-Traditional Security in China-ASEAN Cooperation: The Institutionalization of Regional Security Cooperation and the Evolution of East Asian Regionalism

The institutionalization of China-ASEAN non-traditional security cooperation is underappreciated, even though its significance should be apparent to Western analysts. Appreciating China-ASEAN non-traditional security cooperation leads to the realization that it has strategic significance, and that the broader China-ASEAN multilateral process is the most institutionally developed expression of East Asian regionalism today.