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Featured researches published by Brendan Howe.


Archive | 2013

The protection and promotion of human security in East Asia

Brendan Howe

PART I: OPERATIONALIZING HUMAN SECURITY IN EAST ASIA 1. Introduction - Human Security: Challenges and Opportunities in East Asia 2. Human Security and Good Governance 3. East Asian Perspectives on Human Security and Governance PARt II: EAST ASIAN OBSTACLE CASE STUDIES 4. Human Security and National Insecurity in North Korea 5. Conflict Drivers in Muslim Mindanao 6. Human Insecurity and Underdevelopment in Laos 7. Transforming Conflictual Relationships in Burma/Myanmar 8. Rebuilding Human Security in Timor-Leste PART III: EAST ASIAN ACTORS 9. Human Security and Japanese Strategic Aid 10. South Koreas Contribution to the Promotion of Human Security 11. Conclusion: Future Contributions to East Asian Human Security


Asian Survey | 2011

Human security and development in the Lao PDR freedom from fear and freedom from want

Brendan Howe; Kearrin Sims

Development in Laos has occurred slowly, with uneven distribution and significant negative effects. This article challenges the simplistic assumption of human development and human security as mutually reinforcing processes. It suggests a holistic approach addressing simultaneously competing demands from the perspective of the most vulnerable sectors of society.Development in Laos has occurred slowly, with uneven distribution and significant negative effects. This article challenges the simplistic assumption of human development and human security as mutually reinforcing processes. It suggests a holistic approach addressing simultaneously competing demands from the perspective of the most vulnerable sectors of society.


Archive | 2011

Human Security and Development in Lao PDR: a responsibility to provide and protect

Brendan Howe; Kearrin Sims

Development in Laos has occurred slowly, with uneven distribution and significant negative effects. This article challenges the simplistic assumption of human development and human security as mutually reinforcing processes. It suggests a holistic approach addressing simultaneously competing demands from the perspective of the most vulnerable sectors of society.Development in Laos has occurred slowly, with uneven distribution and significant negative effects. This article challenges the simplistic assumption of human development and human security as mutually reinforcing processes. It suggests a holistic approach addressing simultaneously competing demands from the perspective of the most vulnerable sectors of society.


Asian Studies Review | 2017

Nargis and Haiyan: The Politics of Natural Disaster Management in Myanmar and the Philippines

Brendan Howe; Geehyun Bang

Abstract This paper examines the impact of two of the gravest natural disasters in contemporary Asian history: Cyclone Nargis, which devastated parts of Myanmar in May 2008, and Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in November 2013. It addresses the role played by greatly divergent governance structures, noting that governance failures led to the exacerbation of the disasters in both cases. The paper explores the links between the national government as the primary duty-bearer for good governance and natural disaster risk management, examining institutions, infrastructures, education and budgetary allocations in each country; seeking the underlying causes of inefficient disaster management. This includes the extent to which each government fell short in its response even though each country is regularly exposed to typhoons and tropical storms. In each case the findings are that the national resilience and government preparedness efforts to reduce the impact of natural disasters were insufficient, and that the authorities, either through lack of capacity or lack of will, experienced reaction shortcomings. The final section contains lessons learned and policy prescriptions in order to enhance resilience in the face of future natural disasters in Asia.


Modern Asian Studies | 2010

Between Normality and Uniqueness: Unwrapping the Enigma of Japanese Security Policy Decision-Making

Brendan Howe

To many observers Japanese decision-making is an enigma that defies conventional analysis. Neither the traditional rational actor model of decision-making, nor alternative pluralist models proposed for the analysis of Western democracies fit the Japanese case. As a result Japanese security policy decision-making is described as ‘reactive’ or even non-existent. Likewise, the anomaly of Japanese decision-making is ultimately predicted to be resolved through a process of ‘normalization’ whereby Japanese policy formation evolves into a form that does fit these models. However, this paper contends that the fact that Japans security decision-making does not fit commonly-used models is due rather to the limitations of those models. Japans security policy, like that of all states, is gradually evolving, but this does not mean that it is about to become just like the West. This paper addresses how a conjuncture of external factors and internal factors has stimulated important changes in Japanese security policy-making which are frequently missed or misinterpreted by observers. In order to understand Japanese security policy-making, and to chart its future course, a refined cybernetic approach is introduced.


Journal of International Peacekeeping | 2014

Northeast Asian Perspectives on UN Peacekeeping: China, Japan, Korea

Brendan Howe; Boris Kondoch

Peacekeeping operations are the most visible activity of the United Nations and widely considered an important tool for conflict resolution. For historical, cultural, and political reasons, however, states from Northeast Asia have been hesitant in their support, and limited in their contributions. Yet Northeast Asian regional actors are no longer as resistant to collective security and international governance initiatives as they have historically been portrayed. With the exception of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (dprk), a rogue regime often at loggerheads with the United Nations (un), and the Republic of China (roc) in Taiwan, a province currently denied independent un membership, the three remaining regional powers, the People’s Republic of China (prc), Japan, and the Republic of Korea (rok), have become increasingly engaged in regional and global peace operations. This engagement has picked up pace since the end of the Cold War in 1991. This article, therefore, examines the contributions to un peacekeeping operations by these three Northeast Asian powers. It further explores the motivational impetuses for policy changes and increasing contributions. Finally the paper assesses both the obstacles to, and the potential for future peacekeeping contributions emanating from the region.


Archive | 2013

Human Security and Good Governance

Brendan Howe

We expect those who govern to do so in the interests of the governed, usefully providing services that can best or perhaps only be achieved through collective action. According to the Report of the Commission on Global Governance, ‘governance is the sum of the many ways individuals and institutions, public and private, manage their common affairs’ (CGG, 1995, p. 2). It is an ongoing and evolutionary process which looks to reconcile conflicting interests in order to protect the weak, through the rule of law, from unjust exploitation, and introduce security for all. Governance is also a process through which collective good and goods (including security) are generated, or their production facilitated, so that all are better off than they would be acting individually. Thus, governance implies a concern by those who govern with both the security and development, or provision/facilitation of BHN, of those who are governed. In the contemporary, academic and professional discourse steps to eradicate poverty, particularly in conflict affected areas, have assumed an increasing prominence.


Archive | 2018

State-Centric Challenges to Human-Centered Governance

Brendan Howe

This chapter introduces the key organizing theme of the volume as being structural impediments to the transition from prioritizing the security, development, and rights of the state to prioritizing those of the citizen in East Asian states. It notes that East Asian polities continue to give undue primacy to the state in their governance. Furthermore, there are embedded structural obstacles to achieving human-centered governance objectives in the region. These relate to the role of the military in countries in East Asia, historical authoritarian legacies, and new authoritarian trends. A brief overview of the theoretical framework and East Asian operating environment is followed by a chapter overview of the six paradigmatic case studies of National Security, Statecentricy and Governance in East Asia: North Korea, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Timor-Leste, and Lao PDR.


Archive | 2018

Human-Centered Challenges to Korean Democracy

Brendan Howe

In this chapter, the author examines the quality of democracy from a governance perspective, investigating developments in Korea during the last three decades. Howe complements a democratic governance perspective with elements of a human security perspective that lets him explicitly focus on the dimensions of freedom and equality. In a first step, he discusses various perspectives on democracy in the literature to come up with a set of quality criteria that go beyond mere procedural democracy and emphasize the actual practice of equal rights, opportunities, and the guarantee of the rule of law, accountability, participation, and competition. According to the “human-centered, entitlement rights-based approach” the author applies, one of the core responsibilities for those in power is to provide for the protection of the people so that they are free from fear, free from want, and can live in dignity. In the following sections, Howe examines developments in “achieving at least limited forms of procedural democracy, and good governance in terms of reconciling conflicting interests and generating collective good” between democratic transition in 1987 and the end of the liberal governments of Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun. This is followed by a similar evaluation of the conservative government of Lee Myung-bak, and that of his successor, Park Geun-hye, covering the period up to the year 2015. Howe then scrutinizes qualitative distributive shortcomings and human-centered challenges in Korea’s democracy guided by the three criteria of freedom from fear, freedom from want, and dignity.


Archive | 2016

Introduction to the Developments, Trends and Challenges to UN Peacekeeping Operations

Boris Kondoch; Brendan Howe

Peacekeeping is the flagship operation of the United Nations (un), and its major contribution to global governance and the protection of vulnerable groups. Uniquely universal and legitimate, it is seen as a “strong and effective tool that is protecting people, saving lives and helping countries to emerge from conflict.”1 Between 1948 and March 2016, the un conducted 71 peacekeeping operations (pkos). As of 31 March 2016, there are currently 16 un peacekeeping operations and 123,053 personnel deployed from 123 countries.2 The budget for un pkos for the fiscal year 1 July 2015–30 June 2016 is about

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Kearrin Sims

University of Western Sydney

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Suyoun Jang

Ewha Womans University

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Ian Holliday

University of Hong Kong

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Matthew Kerby

Memorial University of Newfoundland

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