The Protection and Promotion of Human Security in East Asia

B. Howe

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781137293640
• eBook ISBN: 9781137293657
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Asian Politics
• Index: Social Sciences

Although many of the states of East Asia have achieved startling success, not all have benefited from the region's development. Many of the most vulnerable sections of East Asian populations still face tremendous challenges in their daily lives, have yet to enjoy the rewards of the Asian Century, and may even be further imperiled as a result of the forces of development. Brendan Howe examines the measurements of success in East Asian development and governance from a human-centered perspective. He assesses obstacles to the protection and promotion of human security and development through detailed case studies of the most challenged states in the region, including Burma, Timor-Leste, Japan and North and South Korea. He looks at the roles that East Asian actors can play, and have been playing, in protecting and promoting human security at the theoretical and practical level.

Part I

Operationalizing Human Security in East Asia

1

Human Security: Challenges and Opportunities in East Asia

Introduction

East Asia is an extremely successful region of development in terms of both economic growth, and stable and secure governance. A 2011 study by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), on realizing the Asian Century, found that if Asia continues to follow its recent trajectory, by 2050 its per capita income could rise six-fold in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms to reach contemporary European levels, making some 3 billion additional Asians affluent by current standards. ‘By nearly doubling its share of global gross domestic product (GDP) to 52 per cent by 2050, Asia would regain the dominant economic position it held some 300 years ago, before the industrial revolution’ (ADB, 2011, p. 3). Although many countries in East Asia still fall short of the democratic ideal and concerns persist regarding human rights, nevertheless, the idea that the 21st century will be one of Asian dominance and leadership owes much to the success stories of the Northeast and Southeast Asian sub-regions. Indeed under President Barack Obama, the United States, the current global leader, has paid tribute to the rise of the region. In 2009, the first Obama administration dispatched Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to East Asia as her first official foreign policy tour, and in 2012, on the cusp of the second administration, a ‘pivot’ toward the region was announced (later the emphasis was placed on the concept of a ‘strategic rebalancing’ toward East Asia).

Yet although at an aggregate or national level many of the states of East Asia have achieved startling success and, by the same measurements, even the less successful appear to be making remarkable progress, not all have benefited from the region’s development. Many of the most vulnerable sections of East Asian populations still face tremendous challenges in their daily lives, have yet to enjoy many of the rewards of the Asian Century, and may even be further imperiled as a result of the forces of development. This volume critically assesses measurements of success in East Asian development and governance from a human-centered perspective. This involves a major re-evaluation of accepted accounts of domestic governance and international relations in East Asia from both a comparative and interdisciplinary viewpoint.

For the past two decades, the concept of human security has been promoted as a significant extension of traditional security studies as well as a field of development and governance prescription. While human security has been present and visible in academic and practitioner discourse, it is yet, however, truly to capture the imagination of specialists. Partly this is a result of the belligerent direction global politics has taken in the new millennium. Partly, however, it results from conceptual inadequacies internal to the notion itself. This book addresses the disconnect between human security as a problem-solving, policy framework and the epistemological, ontological and methodological debates favored by critical security scholars (Newman, 2010, p. 77). It does so by combining a rigorous epistemological analysis of the existing discourse with detailed analysis of challenging case studies and rational policy prescription.

The rise of East Asia and development limitations

The three largest economies of East Asia, Japan, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), and South Korea, have all experienced growth of such magnitude and under such difficult conditions as not only to have attracted the tag of East Asian economic ‘miracles’, but also to be seen as development models to be emulated. Japan was the lead goose of the ‘flying geese model’ of development; China has generated interest in a Beijing consensus rather than the Washington consensus so severely undermined by the global financial crisis of 2007–08; and even South Korea, a medium-ranked power surrounded by giants, has provided leadership through the soft power of the Hallyu or Korean Wave, as well as its post-conflict ‘miracle on the Han river’ development success story. The other Asian ‘tiger economies’, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore, have contributed to this global perception of East Asian success, and despite the Asian financial crisis of 1997, the Southeast Asian ‘tiger cubs’, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, are also, on the whole, now making economic headlines for the right reasons, as is Vietnam.

In terms of national security, although as a result of territorial disputes and the flashpoints of the Korean Peninsula and the Taiwan Straits, the region is sometimes viewed as the most dangerous or conflictual on the planet (Calder, 2001, p. 106), again, remarkable progress has been made. A security regime that is able to deal with so many conflictual forces, face countless skirmishes and instances of saber-rattling, and yet for more than three decades (since the 1978 Vietnamese invasion of Cambodia) prevent the outbreak of serious hostilities between social and political entities harboring historical grudges toward one another may be considered durable indeed. With the possible exception of the two Chinas, and the two Koreas, states in the region no longer pose an existential threat to each other. All are relatively secure in the knowledge that the geopolitical codes (the practical output of geopolitical reasoning) of states in the region reflect a rational imperative to come to some sort of accommodation with one another in order to best deal with the shared challenges they face. States in Northeast Asia (where there has been no instance of major interstate war for 60 years since the armistice suspending the Korean War in 1953) appear to have reached a rational, socially constructed peace based on mutual benefit, while those in Southeast Asia have evolved into an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) community where non-intervention, tolerance, and mutual respect have formed international governance norms. In both sub-regions, the primacy of economic development is felt over the pressing need to arm for self-defense.

These development and security success stories do not, however, tell the whole story of the region. First, although East Asia as a whole has experienced the largest aggregate growth of any region, some states in East Asia and in particular certain regions within some of these states have far less positive stories to tell. Burma/Myanmar, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), Timor-Leste, and North Korea rank among the worst states in the world in terms of both development performance and the measurements of human security. Cambodia fares only slightly better. Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand all have significant ongoing sub-state internal conflicts (Aceh and West Papua, Muslim Mindanao, and the southern provinces, respectively). The ADB notes that Asia’s leaders will have to manage multiple risks and challenges, particularly increasing inequality within countries, which could undermine social cohesion and stability; rising income disparities across countries, which could destabilize the region; and poor governance and weak institutional capacity (ADB, 2011, p. 4).

The predominant regional foci on the primacy of the state in both domestic and international governance, and the prioritization of national economic growth and national security over other considerations of human development and human security, overlook some of the negative impacts of related policies, and open regional governments to internal and external criticism and pressures. Furthermore, the failure of domestic and international governance to provide safe havens free from fear and want could have spillover consequences for regional security. Indeed contemporary security considerations are best viewed as a broad spectrum or continuum of interrelated issues and actors. Insecure individuals and groups can turn to illegitimate endeavors as transnational criminals, pirates, or terrorists. Governments can turn to aggressive foreign policies and wars of diversion in order to unite their fractious populations, and unscrupulous demagogues can whip up nationalist sentiment and xenophobia.

Research framework

The research project deals primarily with areas closely related to the central concepts of human security and human development in East Asia. In particular, it focuses on case studies where governance challenges to the two disciplines overlap and policy prescription for international actors when engaging with these challenging case studies. This volume considers the threats to human security in East Asian states, but also the roles that East Asian actors can play and have been playing in protecting and promoting human security in post-conflict, conflictual, or pre-conflict (fragile or failing) states in the region. While taking into account ways in which Asian concepts of governance at both the internal and international levels can differ from Western models, it assumes that, nevertheless, Asia is not untouched by the growing international normative consensus that more needs to be done to protect individuals and groups beyond the realm of traditional state-centric security considerations.

The primary unifying theme, therefore, is a concept of near-universal principles that have coalesced in support of ‘objective’ but at the same time non-traditional measurements of governance and development success. The book explores the responsibilities owed by those who govern to the most vulnerable of those who are governed, even among East Asian states traditionally resistant to such perspectives – a responsibility to provide for (or at least to provide the conditions that allow for/facilitate human security), not just to protect, regardless of nationality. A secondary, closely related theme considers the intricate relationships between human security and the national security, development, and human rights spheres of discourse, as well as addressing challenges and policy prescriptions. The complexities of these relationships are explored through the detailed analysis of East Asian case studies wherein significant obstacles toward the protection and promotion of human security persist.

Finally, this volume considers whether, under certain conditions, Asian actors and approaches may be able to secure, in terms of human security, better results than could be achieved through extra-regional intervention. As a growing area of prioritization in development and security theory and practice, human security is an avenue through which the impact of the newly emerging actors and donors in rising Asia can be particularly beneficial. New actors and donors have greater theoretical and practical flexibility in terms of resource allocation prioritization. The limitations of these actors and the East Asian operating environment are readily acknowledged, and in some cases rising Asia could contribute to greater human security challenges, but there are also, at the very least, additional opportunities. The tertiary theme, therefore, is analysis of how ‘same same but different’ not only best describes East Asian international development assistance practices but also how these may hold a comparative advantage or additional benefit for dealing with the challenges of governance and development in the region. In sum, this research provides an overview of the threats to human security in Asia, but from a uniquely Asian perspective.

Chapter outline

The first part of the book expands on the interaction between the theory and practice of human security as it impacts on the East Asian region. Chapter 2 examines the emergence of human security within the wider security studies literature, homes in on debates about human security, and draws important parallels between development and human security. It applies a rigorous theoretical analysis of human security, situating it firmly within the paradigmatic debates and traditions of security, development, and human rights studies. It identifies how, logically, governance policy prescription flowing from a consideration of human security priorities should be reflected not only in the current international preoccupation with a responsibility to protect (R2P) but also in a responsibility to provide/ facilitate. In doing so, it moves beyond the ‘freedom from fear’ area, which has flourished with the revival of ideas of ‘just war’ intervention, toward the relatively neglected ‘freedom from want’ (Chandler, 2008, p. 433). While adopting a normative approach, the emphasis is on entitlement rights centered on human survival rather than on the political rights of human empowerment. It is argued that such an approach is demanded by both logical and pragmatic considerations. This conceptualization generates a fresh way forward for human security studies and good governance policy prescription.

Although perhaps no other region on earth is as culturally and socio-economically diverse, opposition to Western liberal or universal cosmopolitan values emanating from East Asia has tended to be identified collectively as the challenge of ‘Asian’ values’ (Khong, 1997). Chapter 3 explores internal and external pressures to conform to international good governance norms in the region, noting that although Asian exceptionalism survives in the constitutive documents of regional international organizations, and in many of the foreign policy priorities of Asian states, there is something like a global overlapping consensus emerging regarding the concept of individual human entitlement rights. These foundational rights are best summed up by the concepts of freedom from want and freedom from fear. As these may be seen as universal entitlement rights, they impose concurrent obligations on all national and local governments. The growing acceptance within the region of these principles is supported not only by normative convergence but also by a realization that practicing good governance, from the perspective of maximizing the well-being of the most vulnerable of those who are governed, is the rational course to follow from a national security perspective.

The second part of the book explores challenging case studies of East Asian governance. Four of the case studies involve those states in the region which consistently rank lowest according to measurements of human security and development. North Korea, the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos (Lao PDR), Burma/Myanmar, and East Timor are among the most challenged in these categories not only in regional terms but even in global league tables. The fifth case study concerns Muslim Mindanao in the Philippines, site of the region’s oldest conflict, and one of the most intractable on earth. Each of these case studies, however, also serves to highlight particular conceptual or procedural obstacles to the protection of and provision for human security, and expands on the complexities of the relationships between human security and the national security, development, and human rights spheres.

Chapter 4 examines the causes and consequences of domestic and international policy failures in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) through the lens of human security. Herein the international security continuum introduced above is brought sharply into focus, as on the Korean Peninsula ‘new’ human-centered approaches are intimately related to ‘old’ state-centric considerations, non-traditional security (NTS) issues have the potential to become traditional security threats, and issues of human security can morph into ones of pressing concern for the survival of states themselves or the peace and security of the region, or even the globe. The North Korean challenging case study represents the most striking example of the relationship between traditional and NTS considerations. Normative obligations and rational imperatives highlight the necessity of the national government, aid agencies, donor states, and the international community (strategic partners and competitors) to address the insecurity of the citizens of North Korea, and the chapter concludes with a number of possible policy prescriptions.

Chapter 5 continues the evaluation of spillover between the realms of traditional and NTS analysis and practice in the conflict between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and various armed groups claiming to represent the Muslim population of the southern island grouping of Mindanao. This chapter, however, further deconstructs the negative and counterproductive impact of state-centric security and development foci while also broadening the analysis of human security contributions to include conflict drivers from the arena of human development. In other words, analysis of the spillover between traditional and NTS perspectives is expanded along both the vertical and horizontal axes. The findings of the case study are that a focus on zero-sum games and positional negotiations by both sides, combined with a top-down aggregate approach toward what are seen as unitary rational entities, ra...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• Part I Operationalizing Human Security in East Asia
• Part II East Asian Challenging Case Studies
• Part III East Asian Actors
• Index