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Foreword

Northeast Asia Engagement ::

People's Republic of China and U.S. Forces Enhancing Maritime Safety Throughout the Asia-Pacific Region

Proliferation Security Initiative Activities Attract International Interest

Cooperative Understanding ::

Cambodia-U.S. Navies Conduct Historic Exchange

Regional Response Forces ::

Indian, Canadian and U.S. Forces Partner for a Safer Asia-Pacific Region

RIMPAC 2006:
Fostering Regional Peace and Security

Philippine-U.S. Forces Building Interoperability and Goodwill

Happenings  ::

Happenings

Symposium on
East Asia Security:
Enhancing Regional Communication, Cooperation, and Understanding
By Professor Tom Moore

Professor Tom Moore is a SEAS alumnus who has a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Virginia Tech and is a retired Army Colonel. He taught for the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School for 10 years and for the past five years has been an Associate Professor of Joint Maritime Operations at the Monterey campus of the U.S. Naval War College.

Introduction
The Asia-Pacific region is home to hundreds of linguistic, cultural, ethnic, religious and racial groups. While this rich diversity and complex history of relations among the peoples and societies in the region contribute to the region’s vibrancy, they also pose a significant challenge for promoting regional peace and security. A medley of languages can contribute to miscommunication and misunderstanding, and divergent ethnic, cultural and religious practices can erect barriers to development of trust between societies.

Mutual understanding and a shared commitment to the peace and security of this region is vitally important to the peoples and governments in the region. Many programs, exercises, meetings and symposia sponsored by the U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) have the goal of improving communication, reducing polarization, and developing trust among key individuals and organizations within the Asia-Pacific region. One such program is the Symposium on East Asia Security (SEAS) – a cooperative effort between USPACOM and the U. S. Department of State. Both have jointly funded and sponsored the seminar program since its inception in 1986.

According to Mr. Thomas Skipper, Director of the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Public Diplomacy for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, the U.S. commitment to promote mutual understanding and cooperation in the region actually begins at home. “The SEAS program is an example of the shared vision at the Pacific Command and at the State Department for a public outreach effort that brings together professionals from the region to talk to each other and to us about these important regional security issues,” said Mr. Skipper. “The fact that this interagency cooperation between State and PACOM has endured for 21 years speaks volumes about the U.S. government’s commitment to regional stability, security in East Asia, and our willingness to consider innovative ways to foster these goals.”

Mr. Ravic Huso, the senior State Department official who serves as the USPACOM Commander’s Foreign Policy Advisor, offered his thoughts on the SEAS program from his vantage point at USPACOM headquarters in Honolulu, Hawaii. “SEAS plays a unique role at PACOM in support of the Commander’s theater security cooperation goals,” he stated. “By developing and sustaining relationships among the best and brightest civilian officials, senior military officers and security scholars, the program enhances their understanding of the role of USPACOM in the Asia-Pacific region. SEAS has contributed significantly to the strong support among military and civilian policy makers for a continued U.S. role in preserving peace and enhancing prosperity in this dynamic region.”

Unlike many other symposia, SEAS does not convene in a single location for a few days of dialogue and interaction. Instead, the program typically runs between 23 to 25 days, incorporating travel to four or five countries in the Asia-Pacific region. SEAS participants visit U.S. and host nation military installations, military headquarters, U.S. embassies, and host nation foreign and defense ministries. Tours of historical sites of interest and visits to civil society institutions such as universities, colleges and regional security think tanks are also an integral part of SEAS activities. Along the way, participants engage in intensive discussions that continue over formal receptions, luncheons, dialogues, and dinners.

Annually, the SEAS program brings together 20 to 25 mid- to senior-level military and civilian security professionals in the hopes of contributing to improved communication, greater cooperation, and a shared sense of community among defense and security officials from the region. The result of these intensive exchanges is a better appreciation and a shared understanding of national interests and current regional security perspectives.

Historical Background
SEAS began in 1986 as the East Asia Security Tour (EAST), a co-sponsored program of USPACOM and the former U.S. Information Agency (USIA). EAST was the brainchild of the USIA and Dr. Sheldon Simon, Director of the Center for Asian Studies at Arizona State University. Sixteen scholars and government executives from nine countries participated in the initial symposium. Only one military participant took part in the first symposium. However, more than half the participants in every symposium from 1987 onward have come from the active duty military services in the region, from lieutenant colonels to major generals.

In 1989, the East Asia Security Tour was renamed the Symposium on East Asia Security. Over the past 21 years of program activity, nearly 500 participants from 27 Asia-Pacific nations have taken part in SEAS. The SEAS program is building a security community of professionals with shared bonds of mutual respect and mutual understanding. SEAS alumni are found among scholars at influential academic institutions, in key posts as military officers serving in their nations’ defense institutions, and as congressmen and members of their nations’ national security councils. A select core of officials from foreign affairs ministries of host nations and officers from the U.S. Department of State Foreign Service are among SEAS alumni. Many SEAS alumni have progressed in their professional careers to take on positions of greater authority and responsibility serving their countries, heading their nations’ armed forces, or in key positions in civilian government service.

The Philosophy of the SEAS Program
The conduct of the SEAS program has a number of unique features; first, all discussions are confidential. The intent is to encourage frank exchanges that result in better understanding of each nation’s national security interests and policies. As one participant observed, “The most tragic of all conflicts is the one that starts when military and political leaders on one or both sides fundamentally misunderstand the capabilities, limitations or intentions of the other side. The SEAS program tries to prevent misunderstanding by giving participants very personal looks at a wide variety of regional leaders, issues, places, organizations and history.”

Secondly, participants do not wear uniforms and the protocols of rank are not observed – all participants, whether a lieutenant colonel, lieutenant general or full professor, are treated equitably during the symposium. Indeed, everyone carries their own luggage – and given the amount of travel involved, there is a lot of luggage carrying to be done. The purpose of these practices is to encourage participants to establish personal relationships on the basis of equality, regardless of military or other rank, age, ethnicity, education or experience.

Thirdly, the SEAS program relies on American embassies in the region to identify and nominate for the program those candidates with prospects for significant advancement in their careers in government service or with prospects for influence within their civilian communities, and who might also benefit from the insights gained during the SEAS experience. Typically, SEAS participants from the military services have attained colonel or brigadier general level. The typical civilian or diplomat participating in SEAS is someone just below ambassadorial rank or at the assistant or full professor levels, with a number of years still remaining in his or her career.

Finally, the SEAS program contains two broad categories of experiences. The first category involves educational experiences that help participants learn more about the details of national security issues in the region and to hear about each issue from various and sometimes opposing perspectives. The second category involves those experiences that help participants form personal relationships with one another and with the many people they meet at the various stops during the symposium.

Past and Future SEAS Programs
Since SEAS began 21 years ago, the program has continued to grow in its reputation as a positive example of effective interagency partnership between USPACOM and the Department of State. SEAS supports common goals in both USPACOM’s theater security cooperation planning and the Department of State’s public diplomacy outreach.

Past SEAS participants have traveled from their home countries to USPACOM’s headquarters in Honolulu, Hawaii, where the program traditionally starts. Many senior military officers, including the USPACOM Commander, take time to engage with SEAS participants and to brief the visiting foreign officials on the Command’s mission and objectives in the Asia-Pacific region, under the planning and administration of the Command’s Public Diplomacy Advisor.

While Foreign Policy Advisors (also called POLADs) serve as the senior Department of State civilian advisors to U.S. geographic commanders on diplomatic matters, USPACOM Commander’s staff also includes a position for a State Department officer charged with coordination on issues involving public diplomacy and foreign public outreach. The Advisor takes on the principal responsibility for administering the SEAS program each year. The Public Diplomacy Advisor accompanies the SEAS participants both during the week of briefings and visits to U.S. military installations, discussions with think tank and academic experts on Oahu, and during visits to various places in the Asia-Pacific region. The SEAS participants visit key locales in the region and exchange views with defense officials and security experts. Past SEAS groups have visited Singapore, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and the Philippines. The latter three nations have served as regular sites for regional travel, since they share important common interests with the United States regarding the maintenance of regional peace and stability.

Typically, broad themes arise from discussions that take place during the symposium. While the Public Diplomacy Advisor establishes, in consultation with the USPACOM Strategic Policy and Planning Directorate and the Office of the Foreign Policy Advisor, an overarching theme for the annual program, it is difficult to predict what additional themes will emerge as issues of interest for a specific SEAS group. Often, themes simply arise from the confluence of – and sometimes, the collision of – interests among SEAS participants, or the interests of the various speakers who appear during the symposium. Sometimes new themes even emerge from events that take place in the world during the SEAS program.

Past SEAS themes have included discussions about Korean peninsula issues and possible outcomes of the ongoing Six Party Talks; the implications of economic and military developments in China; the evolving roles and ambitions of China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines and the United States with regard to regional security; and the future of security and cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region, among other issues.

Current planning for future SEAS programs seeks to build on two decades of experience with this important exchange program, and to support and nurture the contact within the SEAS alumni community. In 2005, for example, the Public Diplomacy Advisor’s office established a password-protected Web site for SEAS alumni to maintain professional contacts, share information of mutual concern and interest, and to receive information from the Public Diplomacy Advisor’s Office. Future SEAS programs seek to focus on emerging security concerns in sub-regions of Asia Pacific by rotating the various site visits throughout the region.

For the 2007 program, the traditional focus on Northeast Asia will shift for the first time to a focus on countries in Southeast Asia, and will include visits to Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Participants will examine ways in which USPACOM and regional partners are working to support capacity-building efforts so that governments in Southeast Asia can better respond to the security challenges in this important part of the Asia-Pacific region.

Incumbent Public Diplomacy Advisor at PACOM, Ms. Karen Kelley, predicts a dynamic future for the SEAS program, noting that as security challenges evolve, it will be important for the program to adapt so that SEAS will remain a relevant forum for exchange among policy-makers with a stake in the region’s future. “SEAS visits should also take place in India and in other countries in South Asia; the SEAS program should travel to regions beyond China’s capital city; future SEAS participants should have new dialogue opportunities and gain new perspectives by viewing the region from the Pacific Islands,” Ms. Kelley offered. “In any scenario for the Asia Pacific, the commitment to peaceful dialogue in pursuit of the common goals of peace, stable development and economic growth will be as important in the future as it was 21 years ago when the SEAS initiative was first launched.”

E-mail: apdforum@apan-info.net