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"Research on Non-Traditional Security Issues in East Asia"
Project Leader: Patricio N. Abinales

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Outline

The aim of this joint research is create a model of regional cooperation against "non-traditional security issues" that range from transnational crime like the smuggling weapons, human trafficking, undocumented migrants, to epidemics like the avian flu. These are problems that often are treated less importantly because unlike the "arms race," or "global terrorism," their impact on communities are less direct and often not immediately felt. Yet, they exact the same high cost on human lives and societal resources in ways that the violence associated with "traditional security issues" is often described. The biggest distinguishing mark of "non-traditional security issues" is how much their effects are felt not only within nations. Transnational crimes cut across nations and regions, and in the case of human trafficking, for example, are reproduced in all regions of the world. This means that to understand them, one cannot simply focus on a given nation-state. One must examine them through the lens of area studies or the comparative perspective.
This research project will focus on the following issues: illegal arms smuggling within and beyond Southeast Asia, with focus on the flow of arms between conflict zones; the movement of avian flu and other epidemics across regions and a comparative study of national responses to the disease (including a comparative study of agricultural and health agencies of East Asian states); the legal and illegal flow of humans (migrants and trafficking) and the transformation of out-migrant areas as well as destinations; cross-border trading and power in Southeast Asia.
Research on these transnational crimes have increased in the last years, rivaling those studies devoted solely on so-called "traditional security issues." Our study's contribution to this growing field is in promoting a multi-disciplinary area studies approach as well as deploying the comparative perspective in understanding how these crimes spread in the East Asian region, who are the actors involved in their promotion, how states respond to the spread of such crimes individually and as parts of collective associations ( e.g., ASEAN), and what policies could be formulated out of the research's findings. The research also hopes to come up with a model of analysis on transnational crime and a database of crime and state resolution on this issue. All the findings and analyses will then be published into a book.

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