Peacekeeping idea ahead of its time<\/p>\n
Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian
\nNations (ASEAN) met in Vietnam last week and put off the idea of
\nforming a joint military force. The proposal came out of the blue
\nlast month at a meeting in Jakarta between senior officials from
\nthe 10 ASEAN members and the United Nations.<\/p>\n
Host Indonesia proposed establishing an ASEAN peacekeeping
\nforce. The idea may have been ripe for discussion at an
\ninternational conference, but ministers should have dismissed it
\nmore forcefully at their Halong Bay meeting last week.<\/p>\n
Forming a joint military force from the ASEAN member countries
\nis a bad idea. The prime reason is that ASEAN was established as
\na regional body to promote trade and other cooperation.<\/p>\n
The five founding countries and their visionary foreign
\nministers were clear that ASEAN was not -- and would never become
\n-- a military pact.<\/p>\n
There were good reasons for that, and there still are. A few
\nCold War warriors tried to make ASEAN into a successor of the
\nSoutheast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO), but the effort was
\nproperly doomed.<\/p>\n
ASEAN was the antithesis, an organization formed to promote
\ncommon interests, no matter what form of government its members
\nwanted.<\/p>\n
Today, ASEAN governments are communist, socialist, democratic
\nand dictatorships. Members trust one another, and nations of the
\nworld recognize and respect the grouping. A formal military
\nalliance of any type would change the balance of trust, and the
\nbalance of actions.<\/p>\n
Indonesia saw the peacekeeping force as a standing army ready
\nto go to any embattled country to help to restore civil order.
\nThe theory is that an insecure nation would ask for such help.<\/p>\n
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai criticized the Jakarta
\nproposal within a day. He said correctly that an ASEAN
\npeacekeeping force is unnecessary.<\/p>\n
Surakiart worried that peacekeeping could violate the ASEAN
\nprinciple of non-interference in its members' internal affairs.
\nSingapore Foreign Minister Shanmugam Jayakumar had a better
\nreason to oppose it. He told Surakiart and other ministers at
\ntheir meeting at Halong Bay that ASEAN is the wrong forum.<\/p>\n
It is not a security organization, and any effort to graft a
\nmilitary group to ASEAN would be unwieldy at best.<\/p>\n
ASEAN and its members face common security threats. First and
\nforemost is terrorism, followed by organized, cross-border crime.
\nA standing military force will have no effect on these scourges.<\/p>\n
ASEAN must establish greater security cooperation, including
\namong its military officers. A standing military force is not
\nneeded. Instead, members must build better intelligence and
\ninformation links to crack down on the major threats faced by
\nall. -- The Bangkok Post<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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