| bibo:abstract |
ASEAN’s Human Security Cooperation:
the Present and Prospect
March 17, 2010
Lee Jaehyon
Visiting Professor
The end of Cold War
in ASEAN region
brought about a few
major changes in
the regional security
environment, such as the collapse of
southeast Asia communist bloc, the end
of Vietnam's occupation of Cambodia,
and the opening of communist
countries. In this vacuum of traditional
security threat, there gradually emerged
a concern on human security in the
region. Human security issues in
ASEAN region, which have entered
into full discussions with the onset of
the 1997 Asian financial crisis, have
further accelerated as the ASEAN
region faces a number of serious crisis
situations from 2000. Some countries
have suffered greatly from the outbreak
of communicable diseases such as
SARS and AI, amounting to economic
loss of about 1-2% point of their
GDPs, and 2004 tsunami led to the
death of 150,000 Indonesians. Haze in
Southeast Asia, seen as both an
environment problem and natural
disaster, cost Indonesia in 1997-98 $38
billion in economic losses. In addition,
transnational crimes, such as drug and
human trafficking, are also included in
this region’s chronic human security
issues.
To enhance its cooperation with
the ASEAN countries on human
security, Korea, by effectively utilizing
its position between developing and
developed countries, can play the role
of a helper or mediator in providing
assistance to those ASEAN countries
which find human security cooperation
rather challenging due to conflicting
interests among them. Also, Korea
might be able to suggest a technological
alternative to ASEAN in this regard. As
to how assistance would be provided to
those in need, providing assistance
through direct on-site involvement of
Korean experts and the intellectual
labor force and having them wor
together with the locals to resolve the
issues appears to be more desirable
than the approach of mobilizing large
scale economic resources. In order to
resolve human security problems,
including matters related to human
rights and democracy ultimately, i
would be crucial for Korea to address
the issues while not hurting existing
relationship with ASEAN. In this
regard, it is suggested that Korea focus
on the problems related to “freedom
from want” rather than “freedom from
fear” at the initial stage and
first, a small clue that lies at the root of
poverty and lack of development. Such
accumulation of know-through its human security cooperation
with the ASEAN countries is a
prerequisite to become a true middle
power and, the experiences gained from
such cooperation would contribute to
expanding Korea’s cooperative
relationships with other countries and
regions.
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