International Workshop for Peace and Disarmament in the Asia-pacific Region(11/17) – Comments1(By Zarqa Amber)

 The workshop was contained on two sessions. The first session was on “Security policies and civil priorities in the Asia- Pacific Region”. Being a human right activist, Workshop helped me to understand the current situation of peace in the Asia-pacific Region.

My interested session was first “one”. In the post-9/11 landscape, effectively checking political violence and terrorism in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan through preventative legal measures remains a challenge at both state and local levels. Literally speaking, anti-terrorism generally refers to passive, defensive, protective, or legal measures against terrorism.

Efforts to deter terrorism may take the form of severe penalties under anti-terrorism laws, such as circulating descriptions or photographs of terrorists in the media, offering rewards for information, or might involve a naturally evolved deterrent, such as pressuring the kind of terrorists. As Niccolo Machiavelli wrote in The Prince, “fear is maintained by a never failing dread of punishment.” states are invariably the dominant military powers within that system and use that power in order to discipline those who refuse to accept the rules of the game. Core states are invariably the dominant military power within that system and use that power in order to discipline those who refuse to accept the rule of the game. A hegemonic power is state which, because of its productive efficiency, enjoys apposition of economic and military superiority over all its rivals.

The rest of speakers discussed and identified various forms of crime prevailing in Asia, their causes and impacts and suggestion/recommendations for restoring peace and reconciliation. In this context, speaker from UK critiqued on US military strategy in Asia. He stressed the world “relative”.  After all, the Pentagon budget request for 2011 was $712 billion (which includes the $159 billion request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan). Add in the other military-related budget items from other departments, such as nuclear weapons spending at the Energy Department, and the overall military budget rises to $861. This represents a modest but still significant increase in spending from this year. The Obama administration has ended the Global War on terror” and begun the withdrawal of troops from Iraq. But it has also backed a surge of troops in Afghanistan, increased drone attacks in Pakistan, and spread counter-terrorism operations to Yemen and North Africa. Containing China and its “denial strategy” is only one of the US military objectives in Asia. My opinion is this US is using power wrongly, where rest of the developing countries is facing poverty. And climate change is one of the burning issues.

The speaker from Japan, he argued that the international security environment has become “complicated and uncertain” due to factors such as, the rise of nations against the backdrop of economic growth in recent years, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, activities by international terrorist organizations and other non-state actors and the danger of fragile nations becoming hotbeds for international terrorism. The surface of peace conflict, the three countries in which North Korea, China and Russia has nuclear and missile program remain as top concerns. The white paper warms of the “further modernization of its military capabilities against the backdrop of continuing rapid growth of its defense budget”. It also cautiously points out increased Chinese activities in waters closed to Japan. Against these developments the white paper views the “lack of transparency” of defense policies and military activities of China as “a matter of concern.” It calls for “further movements to transparency regarding China’s military” and proposes promoting dialogues and exchanges with China” in order to build confidence.

Speaker from South Korea viewed on Military and security strategy of SK and civil Society priorities before and after Chonan incident that the characteristics of the recent military and security strategies of  South Korea can be summarized as exaggeration of North Korea’s threat, more offensive military counter plans, extension of ROK –US alliance, increase in oversees military interventions under the pretext of contributory diplomacy , more double-standings in nuclear policies, and expansion of export-oriented weapons industry . These are also geared to blind support and copy of the US’s global hegemonic military strategy. It is critical not only because military spending is just too much, but also because the actor who defines a threat can easily control the rest. We have well known throughout history that manipulated fear could control a community to make a irrational decision. The Iraq and Afghanistan case is very popular.

Speaker from China, she presented her ironic ideas about security policy in Asia-pacific region. China is not necessarily a threat to its neighbors and to regional stability and security as whole because Beijing has not behaved as revisionist state. The increase of allocation to Navy and other military sectors are more a make-up than a strategically calculated plan. The china has defensive security policy and the core threat and security challenges are more internal rather than external. The new white paper puts a list of threats/ challenges that China is facing the top three are all about the integrity of China as a sovereign state. The separatism in Taiwan(Province of China), Tibet, and Xinjiang are the present threat to China’s national security. 

In globalization age , our lives are destroying, now civil society has advantages to take action against this evil action .I consider terrorism a serious threat against all societies and condemn every form of terrorism, including the exploitation of civil aviation, without regard to where or when it is committed, by whom, or the ideologies supporting it. As such, we share the responsibility to act against terrorism as a whole, using all the resources available in accordance with both domestic and international law. Civil society should Share expertise, best practices and information in a range of areas related to civil aviation, such as screening and inspection techniques, detection of weapons, explosives and hazardous materials, airport security, behavioral detection, screening and credentialing of airport employees, human resource development. Policy about military should be abolished and there should be conducted advocacy program against civil war or global war against terrorism. It is very critique situation that when middle is busy in purchasing weapons but I have not any reaction of civil society. There would be encouraged peace movement in other Asia especially south Asian countries. Still we have cross border issues and selling of weapons.