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After the Berlin Wall fell and communism collapsed in Europe, the United States at first scorned the view that the Asia-Pacific region required its own security organization. Washington clung to the belief that its existing bilateral alliances with key allies – the so-called hub-and-spokes arrangement – would take care of trouble in the post-Cold War era. One American analyst went so far as to declare that one of the biggest threats to Asia was the political science establishment propagating useless alternative schemes. But President Bill Clinton’s administration, which took office in 1993, came to accept that what was being proposed wasn’t "academic solutions in search of problems," as the analyst cynically described them. And so the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum [ARF] was formed in 1994. Today it consists of 23 members, including Japan, Russia and China as well as the U.S. Washington maintains its alliance structure, as ARF engages in simple confidence-building measures and struggles to find common ground among allies and former foes. Now, the U.S., represented by its commander-in-chief of Pacific forces, Adm. Dennis Blair, is urging the formation of "security communities" in Asia. Under this radical proposal, countries would concentrate on shared interests in peaceful development and actively promote diplomacy and negotiation to resolve disagreements. The shift in U.S. opinion in the past decade is little short of breathtaking. Since Adm. Blair began spreading his gospel, it has become apparent that the notion of a security community isn’t widely understood. Like most theories in international relations, it is West European in origin, fathered in the 1950s by Karl Deutch, a German-born scholar who spent much of his adult life teaching in the U.S. He and his associates were seeking to explain the emergence of cooperation among the developed states of the North Atlantic. Basically, the concept of a security community rejects a balance-of-power approach, where major players that pack economic and military punch maneuver continually to offset each other. It answers the question of how long-term rivals become friends, by accepting that force is no longer legitimate in solving disputes. Arms races and contingency planning are ruled out. Countries don’t have to become bosom buddies, or pretend that they don’t have differences. Rather, they accept that they have a common interest in settling them without resorting to war. "I am not naive on this score," Adm. Blair tells me. "But I am more optimistic than most. If pursued skillfully, I believe efforts to change mindsets in Asia over time will take hold and build durable security that will support prosperity and improvements in the standard of living of Asians. It is a worthy goal for those who live in, are engaged in and care about the region." |
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