Part 1 of 2: Africa, Asia and global security

Juwono Sudarsono, Jakarta

In the five decades between the Afro-Asian conference in 1955 and the 50th anniversary commemoration in 2005 in Bandung, global security has largely been determined in terms of what the powerful countries of the developed world arbitrarily define it to be.

The international system established in 1945 and which transpired 60 years later had one underlying theme in common: Global security remains dominated by the major powers and veto- carrying permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: The United States, France, the United Kingdom, Russia. They constituted the most powerful nuclear weapon-possessing nations of the world. Since 1971 the one nation representing the developing nations of the South remains China.

For practical political and economic reasons Germany and Japan become members of the triangular poles of economic power centers: North America, the European Union and Japan. Of the three major Asian countries that participated in the 1955 Bandung conference, Japan, China and India now constitute global political and economic powers, but even their combined powers still do not match the powerful nexus of political, economic and military strength of North America and the European Union.

Despite the rising political and economic authority of Japan, China and India, the strength of the developed world in the areas of the knowledge economy and path-breaking service industries remain the most powerful engines and repositories of technological research, development and innovation.

And, notwithstanding the plethora of political, economic and security multilateral institutions and movements that have sought to forge a more distributive international system, most developing nations in Africa and Asia have little effective leverage to reform and redefine the terms and conditions of the intense unequal state-of-power relationships.

The 2005 Asian-African Summit and Commemorative meetings in Jakarta and Bandung in April sought to establish a long-term strategic partnership through which the sustained political, economic and social commitment of the nations of Asia and Africa -- in cooperation with the countries of the developed world -- would forge a fairer and more equitable international system.

It is a long-standing commitment that reaches back to Bandung, the first Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade in 1961 and the numerous political, economic and security international and regional conferences, seminars, workshops and summit meetings throughout the 1960s up to the beginning of the current millennium.

The New Asia-Africa Strategic Partnership seeks to create a global system in which the unequal state of power relationships between the powerful North and the weak South is transformed into a world system in which the levers of "the power to persuade" and "the power to coerce" mesh together so that a greater part of the world's population will gain ready access to basic needs of human survival and ensure security in the wider sense -- political, economic, social, military and environmental.

In 2005, of the estimated 6.5 billion people of the world, more than 2 billion live below the poverty line, 70 percent of whom reside in the countries of Africa and Asia. By 2050, more than 9 billion people will inhabit the earth. The demographic pressures on the environment and on political and social systems will be unimaginable. Global security remains valid only for those who can afford it by virtue of their political, economic and social power and privileges.

What are the salient features of this highly unequal power relationships? Can the countries of Africa and Asia persuade the countries of the powerful industrial world that the long-term interest of the rich cannot survive if they do not care for the plight of the vast majority who are desperate and in despair?

As in 1955, the global security of the international system in 2005 remains largely defined by an imbalance of power relationships. The most critical inequities of the system are:

In social-economic terms, the absolute gap between the world's richest and poorest nations has been growing during the past 20 years. It is getting wider even as the proportion of the world's population living in extreme poverty continues to fall.

The richest 20 percent of the world enjoy more than 80 percent of the world's income; the second richest 20 percent enjoy barely 11 percent of income; the next 20 percent commands a paltry 2.3 percent; the fourth 20 percent a dismal 1.9 percent.

Even allowing for region and country-specific areas in south, east and west Africa and east Asia that have done relatively well between 2000-2005, the vast majority of African-Asian peoples still live well below the poverty line.

In the realm of military power, more than 80 percent of the world's nuclear, conventional, biological and other agents of mass destruction are produced or in possession of countries of the developed world. In effect the production, sale, application and control of these weapons is regulated by governments and firms of the developed world.

Lacking most of the basic requirements to develop advanced nuclear and conventional weapons, many African and Asian nations have little capability to inject effective leverage over the terms and conditions of regional and local security.

As a result, many African and Asian nations become breeding ground for disaffected youth which record to asymmetric warfare.

No one country -- not even the United States, Russia or China -- can claim to be completely autonomous in how it sustains its military. The future of military weapons and equipment production must take into account co-production agreements, joint-ventures, corporate alliances and sub-contracting across continents and nations. Command and control capabilities which depend on key technologies such as electronics are by nature globalized industries.

The more advanced countries in Africa and Asia must ensure that a common strategy to share in the commercial spin-offs of military technology and research with the developed world must be applied to save lives rather than destroy them. Every dual use which initially concentrates on producing bombs, missiles and tracking systems must be transformed into live-saving utilities and equipment.

More than 70 percent of advanced research and development in science and technology are concentrated in the countries and firms of the developed world, 50 percent of which originate in the United States. Although global research and development cuts across national and regional borders, the vast majority of the revenue accrued through these activities benefits advance industrialized countries.

African and Asian nations must connect into the rapid changing new technologies. Enclaves of advanced research and excellence in their commercial applications must become priorities to be integral parts of the Asia-Africa strategic partnership.

By 2050, the benefits of these revolutionary advances in science and technology must provide outreach to the poorest of the poor in Africa and Asia. A world system in which the scientific and technological innovations of the few do not care to help the poor cannot for long save the few who are rich.

The writer is the Minister of Defense for Indonesia.