There are other challenges that will involve U.S. Pacific Command forces more often in the future, such as:
• Coordinating international efforts to counter terrorists, pirates, drug traffickers, and other transnational organizations that attack our societies.
• Being prepared to evacuate our
citizens from regions of civil disorder.
• Helping contribute to the management of the consequences of nuclear, chemical, or biological accidents or attacks.
• Search and rescue of our ships and airplanes at sea.
• Providing humanitarian assistance to those who are caught in the path of
violence or disaster.
• Providing support to UN peacekeeping operations and complex contingencies like the one going on now for two years in East Timor.

In many cases, insurgency and communal violence are closely tied to transnational terrorism, drug trafficking, piracy and other criminal activity. No nation can deal with these transnational challenges alone. The ease of transporting people, goods, information, and finances creates opportunities for legitimate and illegal activity alike.

We already have many examples of regional armed forces meeting new challenges, singly such as Japan’s Self-Defense Force’s contributions to disaster relief in Honduras; or multilaterally, such as submarine rescue exercises, peacekeeping along the Golan Heights, counter piracy operations in Southeast Asia, naval mine countermeasure exercises sponsored by Singapore, and the relocation of displaced persons in Indonesia following the disturbances in East Timor.

Those of us who have contributed to security in East Timor believe that these operations were very successful and remain so. But at the same time, they exposed many areas in which we could improve the capability of our regional armed forces to work together. As a result of these East Timor lessons, we are working together in many areas – in workshops and exercises, in forming what we call multinational planning augmentation teams to train our staffs and our armed forces to come together when our governments decide to accomplish missions more effectively.

In U.S. Pacific Command, we are taking some previously bilateral exercises and training events and evolving them into events where more multilateral and international cooperation can take place on these new types of missions we all face in the future.

In the Philippines, SAGIP – a previously bilateral R.P.-U.S. humanitarian rescue exercise – has now become a multilateral forum for many countries, giving them the opportunity to think through how they will react to things like earthquakes in India, monsoons in Bangladesh, volcanoes in the Philippines, and similar events which demand a rapid response.

In Thailand, COBRA GOLD – a previously bilateral Thai-U.S. exercise based on the defense of Thailand – has matured into a broader multilateral event anchoring the regional linked exercise initiative TEAM CHALLENGE. The latest iteration included armed forces from Singapore and observer teams from nine other countries. The exercise scenarios are no longer focused primarily on a possible invasion of Thailand, but instead are pragmatic and contemporary: disaster response, humanitarian assistance, non-combatant evacuation, and UN-sanctioned peace enforcement operations. And the methodology is focused on how to bring the forces of many nations together in time of crisis as an interoperable, joint, combined, multilateral team, responding efficiently to the emergent requirement at hand.

I would like to point out that all of these activities are inclusive, not exclusive. China, Russia, India, and other nations are invited to participate. These are activities in which we can all work together – the more armed forces there, the better.

As we work together on these tasks – each of them vital to our people’s security and well-being – not only do we develop a better way to do them, we also develop habits of cooperation. We can isolate points of friction and disagreements in a surrounding environment of cooperation, which provides us with inspired ways of thinking about each other – not as potential opponents in arms races or conflicts, but as friends and comrades. We are military organizations cooperating for the common good – and this can bring inestimable benefit to our countries and the region.

As I look to the approaching quarter-century, I am convinced that we need a fresh way of thinking about our military activities. Yes, national defense will always be our first priority. Yes, there will continue to be threats on the horizon. But I also believe there are other vitally important new areas of opportunity that demand our attention. There are possible areas of cooperation that, if earnestly pursued, will allow us to construct new ways of operating in this part of the world. That is the thinking and these are the opportunities that we all should pursue these next 25 years.

To those who have worked on FORUM for the past 25 years – especially Paul Stankiewicz, who has poured his heart and soul into this magazine for 20 of them – and to FORUM’s readership across the vast Asia -Pacific region, I extend my congratulations for 25 years of progress, and my best wishes for continuing success as we all work together to make cooperation the touchstone of all our military activities. If I’m right, the Asia-Pacific Defense FORUM will be reporting this common effort in a new era of unparalleled regional military cooperation for the coming quarter-century.