The COVID-19 pandemic has become one of the most threating nontraditional security (NTS) issues, one that has created a significantly negative impact on international society. However, such an impact is not necessarily evenly distributed in the world. Indeed, Southeast and Northeast Asia have managed relatively well (so far) to suppress the rapid infection spread, infection rate, and the fatality rate, in comparison with the Americas and Europe. Considering that Asia has been often focused more on traditional geopolitical security issues emanating from the rising (or risen) China, it is quite puzzling why this is the case. Some would quickly argue that Asia’s political regimes are nondemocratic, which made it easier and faster to decisively make political decisions. However, the answer begs the question of why those Asian states were able to make relatively effective political decisions, while other nondemocracies still suffer from the pandemic.
Mely Caballero-Anthony’s book, Negotiating Governance on Non-Traditional Security in Southeast Asia and Beyond, is a welcome contribution to deciphering such a puzzle, but the book also provides a more comprehensive view on the development of security governance in Southeast Asia and East Asia. Caballero-Anthony’s central question is clear and straightforward: In the context of growing economic and social interconnectedness in the region that creates greater impacts of transboundary NTS threats, such as pandemics, environmental degradation, disaster management, and refugees, how did and does Southeast Asia manage those new security challenges? Because the existing literature in East Asian security is too often dominated by traditional security perspectives, and given that East Asia has frequently faced various NTS threats, the book is incredibly useful to understand the past, present, and the future of regional security governance mechanisms.
The core argument of the book is that East Asian regional arrangements vis-à-vis various NTS issues should be understood through the lens of “security governance,” which is defined as “the structures and processes that enable public and private actors to cooperate, collaborate, and collectively respond to security challenges” (p. 4). Caballero-Anthony emphasizes this concept, because conventional IR theories cannot capture the multiplicity of actors and the layers of regional security arrangements that tackle NTS issues. To operationalize the concept, she uses securitization theory and analyzes the dynamic process of how each NTS issue in Southeast Asia has become salient at a given time and place. Using these conceptual and theoretical frameworks, she puts emphasis on the importance of the “human security” concept, countering the conventional assumption that state actors are the only game in town in Southeast Asia and East Asia.
The book has six chapters that examine the configuration of security regional governance mechanisms on a specific NTS issue: health security (chapter 3), environmental security (chapter 4), migration (chapter 5), humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (chapter 6), nuclear energy (chapter 7), and food security (chapter 8). These chapters successfully show variances in the securitization process and actors involved in detail. For example, East Asia’s health governance stemmed from the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic, which triggered Southeast Asian states to establish crisis and consequence management mechanisms in the region and beyond. Its securitization process was initiated by various actors, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and national governments of the affected states, but the regional security governance mechanism was eventually nurtured through the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which institutionalized and diffused a health security agenda to regional states and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
Security governance relating to the nuclear energy issue was triggered by several nuclear crises—most recently, the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan—and in Southeast Asia, it was mainly securitized by NGOs, such as Malaysian Physicians for Peace and Social Responsibility. Southeast Asia’s nuclear security governance mechanism is still at its nascent stage, yet the demand for the mechanism is increasing, and some ideas, including the establishment of the ASEAN Network of Regulatory Bodies on Atomic Energy (ASEATOM), have been proposed. As such, the book well captures different developments and characteristics of the NTS security governance in Southeast Asia.
Nevertheless, no book is perfect, and this book has two main issues. First, it does not clearly make a theoretical contribution to understanding the NTS issues. Admittedly, the book’s geographical focus is on Southeast Asia and, to some extent, East Asia, and one of its main purposes is to clarify the regional security governance mechanisms of NTS. However, its analysis tends to be descriptive. The current status of the regional governance arrangements is well illustrated, but the securitization process is not analyzed in detail. Because the book uses securitization theory, it is necessary to systematically show the process of the interaction between securitization actors and their target audiences to understand how securitization is achieved—how securitizing actors specify their audiences and persuade them to make a particular issue a salient regional security agenda. This is because the utility of securitization theory is that it illuminates reasons why some issues become important security ones while others do not. This part of the book was largely lacking case chapters, which makes readers wonder if there are significant gaps between the book’s theoretical discussion and case studies. Without a concrete theory application to cases, it is extremely difficult to generalize securitization processes of NTS issues in Southeast Asia.
Second, the book’s methodology, particularly its case selection, is not clearly explained. Obviously, the six selected NTS cases are important in Southeast Asia and are considered to be the most pressing policy agendas in the region. For example, the social and economic impacts of the Haze problem, the Rohingya refugee issue, and the frequent occurrence of natural disasters, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, have greatly disrupted the social fabric of certain Southeast Asian states. However, there are also other important NTS issues, such as piracy, drug trafficking, water management, international terrorism, and cybersecurity, and it is not entirely clear why these issues were not selected. Moreover, all the case studies are by and large successful securitization processes, and thus, the cases do not clarify whether a securitization theory helps us generalize the management of NTS issues in Southeast Asia and beyond.
These theoretical and methodological weaknesses perhaps derive from the book’s inclination toward policy-oriented research. In fact, the concluding chapter reiterates the necessity of a broader view of security governance in understanding Southeast Asian security governance by highlighting the limitations of the state-centered approach, the importance of NTS issues in regional stability, and the functions of national governance, regional organizations, and nonstate actors. These are surely important factors for policy makers, practitioners, and even academics, yet require more in-depth discussion if the book aims to make a theoretical contribution.
That said, the book best depicts the development and configuration of regional security governance mechanisms in Southeast Asia and beyond and outlines their future challenges and implications. This is all useful and necessary information for understanding Asia’s management of NTS issues, including Asia’s performance in managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Given its well-organized and rich information, as well as comprehensive overviews of Asian regional security governance, the book is required reading for those who study nontraditional security issues in Southeast Asia.
