Introduction: Evolution of the Security Dilemma

  • Alan Collins
Chapter

Abstract

The 1990s has proven to be a decade of great change for the members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). The beginning of the 1990s brought fears that ASEAN would be unable to adjust to the new post-Cold War era. In 1989 the then Foreign Minister of Singapore, Wong Kan Seng warned, ‘the continued relevance of the organisation, post-Cambodia, cannot be taken for granted’, and that ASEAN would need ‘new rallying points or risk drifting apart to the detriment of regional cooperation and bilateral relationships’.1 The combination of weapons procurements by the ASEAN members; the thawing of territorial disputes frozen during the Cold War; the emergence of China as a regional hegemon; and the prevalence of ethnic tensions throughout the region, all indicated that Southeast Asia was entering a period of uncertainty at best and rising tension at worst. Yet prior to the economic crisis of the late 1990s ASEAN was touted as a success story. The association had not only managed to avoid drifting apart, but with the accession of Vietnam in 1995, Burma and Laos in 1997 and Cambodia in 1999 its membership increased to include all the states of Southeast Asia — the goal of an ASEAN-Ten has been achieved.

Keywords

Ethnic Conflict ASEAN Member Spiral Model ASEAN Regional Forum Security Regime 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. 3.
    See Nicholas J. Wheeler and Ken Booth, ‘The Security Dilemma’ in John Baylis and N.J. Rengger (eds.), Dilemmas of World Politics: International Issues in a Changing World ( Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992 ), pp. 29–60.Google Scholar
  2. 5.
    Muthiah Alagappa, ‘Asian Practice of Security: Key Features and Explanations’, in Muthiah Alagappa (ed.), Asian Security Practice: Material and Ideational Influences ( Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998 ), p. 613.Google Scholar
  3. 9.
    John Herz, Political Realism and Political Idealism: A Study in Theories and Realities ( Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1951 ).Google Scholar
  4. 10.
    Herbert Butterfield, History and Human Relations ( London: Collins, 1951 ).Google Scholar
  5. 18.
    John Herz, International Politics in the Atomic Age (New York: Columbia University Press, 1966), p. 234n5.Google Scholar
  6. 23.
    Robert Jervis, Perception and Misperception in International Politics ( Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976 ), p. 64.Google Scholar
  7. 24.
    Robert Jervis, ‘Security Regimes’, International Organization 36/2 (Spring 1982), p. 360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  8. 26.
    Charles L. Glaser, Analyzing Strategic Nuclear Policy ( Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990 ), p. 77.Google Scholar
  9. 30.
    Barry Posen, ‘The Security Dilemma and Ethnic Conflict’, Survival 35/1 (Spring 1993), p. 28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. 32.
    Jack Snyder, Perceptions of the Security Dilemma in 1914’, in Robert Jervis, Richard Ned Lebow and Janice Gross Stein (eds.), Psychology and Deterrence ( Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1985 ), p. 155.Google Scholar
  11. 38.
    Bradley S. Klein, Strategic Studies and World Order ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994 ), p. 21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. 39.
    Barry Buzan, People, States and Fear: An Agenda for International Security Studies in the Post-Cold War Era (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 2nd ed., 1991), pp. 294–295.Google Scholar
  13. 46.
    Charles E. Osgood, An Alternative to War and Surrender (Chicago: University of Illinois, 1962 ).Google Scholar
  14. Amitai Etzioni, The Hard Way to Peace: a new strategy ( New York: Collier Books, 1962 ).Google Scholar
  15. 56.
    Ken Booth, ‘The interregnum: world politics in transition’, in Ken Booth (ed.), New Thinking About Strategy and International Security ( London: Harper Collins, 1991 ), p. 20.Google Scholar
  16. 58.
    Stuart J. Kaufman, An “international” theory of inter-ethnic war’, Review of International Studies, 22 /2 (April 1996), p. 151.Google Scholar
  17. 68.
    Stuart J. Kaufman, ‘Spiralling to Ethnic War’, International Security 21/2 (Fall 1996), p. 109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  18. 73.
    Glenn Snyder, The Security Dilemma in Alliance Politics’, World Politics, 36 /4 (July 1984), p. 461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Copyright information

© Alan Collins 2000

Authors and Affiliations

  • Alan Collins
    • 1
  1. 1.University of WalesSwanseaUK

Personalised recommendations