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Security at global and local levels

The rise of Asia in general and China in particular constitutes a major challenge to international security. Change in the global distribution of power – militarily, economically and politically – has historically been among the primary reasons for instability, friction and major war. Accommodating change peacefully is notoriously difficult, because existing orders and institutions reflect old power distributions and change therefore affects privileges and principles.

The Western security literature has so far mostly been pre-occupied with discussions of a possible “China threat” (and Chinese responses taken the form of the theory of “China’s Peaceful Rise”), but so far little work both outside and inside the region exists on the visions that are going to animate the usage of the newly emerging power in Asia. Understanding hereof has to draw on international history, culture and traditions as well as current political thinking in Asia. Particularly, it will be important to combine and mediate on the one hand general theories of international relations that are often Western-derived and presume Westphalian sovereignty based order and on the other hand the history and possibility of more centred or ‘imperial’ orders, where notions of hierarchy, harmony and responsibility play a different role. The emerging security order needs to be analysed not only in terms of power and polarity, balances and alliance, but also more broadly as a regional “international society” with distinct institutions and principles. Particular attention needs to be paid to the complex interaction of regional security with domestic, sub-regional, inter-regional and global security dynamics.

This largely top-down question about the effect on global power, the reactions of other powers, and the locally grown visions for international security, should be complemented with a second main form of security analysis of a more bottom-up nature. What constitutes conflict, security and risk, and the way they are handled and voiced, varies according to the relevant political culture or collective habitus in question. By looking at such perceptions and coping strategies in various parts of Asia, theories of conflict and security may be refined to adequately cover experienced realities and both the inter- and intra-regional interactions pertinent to Asia. Such inter- and multidisciplinary investigations of differences and similarities in perceptions of “security”, “conflict” “risk” or “danger” can provide us with a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms that prompt individual or collective actors in various parts of Asia to behave in specific ways. The scope of this theme should be conceived both at micro-level, where social perceptions and assessments of risk, danger and cravings for security come to the fore, and at macro-level, where governments, diplomats, civic institutions or the military establishment act, as exemplified by innovative efforts by both authoritarian and democratic Asia toward the securitization of threats to society often implying also a designation of specific developments or actors in society as security threats. The combination of social sciences and the humanities in this field would help foster a new form of “security and conflict studies”, where different disciplines will come together to cast light on the specific nature of security perceptions in Asia.