Thayer Security Dynamics In Southeast Asia

Security Dynamics in South East Asia Professor Carl Thayer Security Studies (Regional) Australian Command and Staff College October 12,, 2009

Outline • Origins of the term ‘Southeast Southeast Asia/South East Asia’ – – – –

Unity based on geography and/or other factors Theatre of operations in the 2nd World War Product of historical and other forces An ‘imagined community’

• Security S i ddynamics, i 1945-present 1945 • Role of external powers

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene 2

“Words like ‘Southeast Asia’ and ‘unicorn’ enable us to discuss topics about which we would not otherwise be able to hold a conversation, but we should be wary of attributing any more solidity to these concepts than the facts will allow.” -J.R.E. JRE W Waddell, dd ll An A Introduction I t d ti to t Southeast S th t Asian Ai Politics (1972)

Origins of South East Asia • • • • • • •

Suvarnadvipa (Land of Gold) Indian Nan Yang g ((South Seas)) Chinese Nan Yo (South Seas) Japanese Far East Indonesia/Indosinesia Indo-China ‘South of China, East of India’

Origins of South East Asia • English E li h speakers k – South-East Asia (1847)

• German speaking scholars – From hinter Indian to Süd Ost Asien (1902)

• French speakers – l’Asie du sud-est (1943) ( )

1. Unifying Features • Physical geography • Common language • Religion/Culture g

• Climate • Ethnicity • Shared history

Pre-Colonial State Systems • Indianized – Coastal or Riparian (maritime or commercial) • Funan, Srivijaya, Malacca, Majaphit, Aceh

– Inland Agrarian g • Angkor (Cambodia), Sailendra/Borobudur (central Java), Mataram (central Java), Pagan (Burma)

• Sinicized (Chinese influenced or Sino-) – Vietnam (Confucian bureaucratic)

CHINESE EMPIRE

NANCHO PYU CHENLA CHAMPA

SRIVIJAYA

8TH CENTURY Approximate frontiers

12TH CENTURY A Approximate i t frontiers f ti

CHINESE EMPIRE NANCHAO PAGAN

KHMER * Angkar

SRIVIJAYA

KEDIRI

14TH CENTURY approximate frontiers

CHINESE EMPIRE BURMA CHIANGMAI

SUKHOTHAI AYUDHA

MAJAPAHIT

Unifying Features • Inter-penetration by sea • Accessibility by air and sea – Trade, commerce, travel, communications

• Role as a gate keeper – Straits of Malacca – Singapore i as entrepot

• Inter-section of Great Power interest

2. South-East Asia Command • SEAC established in 1943 during World War 2 – Ceylon, Burma, Siam, Malaya, Sumatra – 1945 expanded to include remainder of South East Asia except the Philippines and Indochina north of 16th parallel • 1954 South East Asia Treaty Organisation or SEATO – Philippines and Thailand, Pakistan, France, US, UK, Australia, and NZ

SOUTH-EAST ASIA COMMAND

Burma Siam SEAC Malaya y Ceylon Sumatra

3. Product of Historical Forces • Two forces have depicted the region as a unit • (1) Positive view: Malaysia/Singapore sit in the center of a meaningful region, called by a diversity of names; • (2) Negative: decision by peripheries that they were not appendages of larger neighbors

Chinese View • Quicker than Europeans to see Southeast Asia as a unit – Chinese emigration centered in Singapore – Teochew rice trade network – Hakka technology and labor network for tin and ggold mining g – South Seas Society (1940) – Nanyang University (1956)

Religious Center • Networks centered on the Straits of Malacca – French Catholic College in Pinang – English Protestant Anglo-Chinese College in Melaka – Malay-Islam axis Patani-Aceh-Batavia/Jakarta “People p Below the Winds,” Jawah – Theravada Buddhism – Pegu-BangkokTenasserim and Nakhon Sithammarat

Trade Hub • Straits of Sunda and Malacca • Ports channeled trade to whole region g – Srivijaya, Melaka, Johor, Patani, Banten Batavia, Pinang, Singapore

• Ports lived by trade, imported food, knew they were part of greater region • ‘The Empty Center’ - Peninsula, eastern Sumatra and western Java

The Role of Singapore • Commercial center of Southeast Asia from its very y foundations • Centrality for Bugis, Malay and Chinese maritime networks • Rulers of Siam and Vietnam – their window on the world – 1825-47 seven official Vietnamese missions

The Geni Geniuss of Southeast So theast Asia • ‘The The genius of Southeast Asia, as it has constructed itself, is in having no core, no dominant centre. Rather it has a fine balance between a centre which is strong in economic and communications terms but cannot dominate in population l ti or historic hi t i civilisation, i ili ti andd a populous l periphery composed of diverse civilisations each finding the inherent pluralities of the association attractive.’ – Professor A J.S. Reid

Periphery

Periphery

Periphery

4. Imagined Proximities • (1) Search for common attributes – physical, cultural, and historical – linking its otherwise divergent societies and peoples. peoples • (2) Identify historical patterns of political and economic interactions, including common and overlapping pre-modern political structures, and networks of trade and commerce. • (3) What is missing is a sense of regional identity involving deliberate construction of the region, undertaken by the states states, societies and peoples inhabiting it.

Indigenous Construction • In 1959 Tunku Abdul Rahman proposed the Association of South-East Asia (formed in 1961) – Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand

• Maphilindo (1963) – Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia • Regional identity via ASEAN (1967) – Zone of Peace Freedom and Neutralityy ZOPFAN

Security Dynamics, 1945-Present • ‘Region of revolt’ – communist insurgencies g (1948-) ( ) – Burma, the Philippines, Malaya, Indonesia

• Ethno-nationalist separatism and armed insurgency – Burma – Southern Philippines and southern Thailand

Vietnam War

Confrontation, 1963-66

Security Dynamics, 1945-Present • Decolonisation – Timor Timor-Leste( Leste( 1975 1975-99) 99)

• Territorial disputes – Land borders • Philippines claim to Sabah • Cambodia and its neighbours

– Maritime • Gulf of Thailand, South China Sea

People’s Republic of Democratic Kampuchea Kingdom of Cambodia Kampuchea

Sino-Vietnamese Border War 1979

China ‘teaches teaches Vietnam a lesson’ lesson for invading and occupying Cambodia

The Role of External Powers • United States – – – – – –

Anti colonial outlook Anti-colonial Treaty allies -, the Philippines and Thailand SEATO Vietnam War syndrome Expulsion from the Philippines Global War on Terrorism • Operation Enduring Freedom-Philippines

The Role of External Powers • Australia – – – – –

Colombo Plan Confrontation and Vietnam War ASEAN’ first dialogue partner ASEAN Five Power Defence Arrangements Middle power diplomacy • Cambodian conflict, APEC, intervention in East Timor, East Asia Summit, Asia Pacific community

The Role of External Powers • People’s Republic of China – – – – – –

5 Principles of Peaceful Coexistence 1954 Geneva Conference Non-Aligned Non Aligned Movement - Bandung Support for regional communist insurgencies Normalisation of state-to-state state to state relations Cambodia and conflict in Cambodia

The Role of External Powers • People’s Republic of China continued – – – –

Good neighbour policy Peaceful development Peaceful rise New concept of security • Promotion of cooperative security

– Multilateral engagement – Harmonious world

Security Dynamics in South East Asia Professor Carl Thayer Security Studies (Regional) Australian Command and Staff College g October 12, 2009