Timo Kivimäki

The Long Peace of ASEAN

According to the constructivist theory of liberal democratic peace, intersubjective social realities are often more important in the construction of pacific unions of interstate peace. In order to demonstrate the importance of social construction rather than objective matters as a source of peace, previous studies have discussed cases where democracies appear to have fought one another. This article, instead of showing how objective factors fail to contribute to liberal democratic peace if the intersubjective consensus is lacking, shows how the intersubjective consensus about the common interests, norms, and identity has contributed to the interstate peace among the illiberal non-democracies of Southeast Asia. The long peace among the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 1968-94 is compared to the bellicose period of the Malaysian confrontation, when most of the objective bases for the perception of common interests, common commitment to democratic procedures and liberal norms, and institutional restraints on war were arguably stronger than during the long peace. The intention is to show how even the political elite groups of illiberal non-democracies can manipulate the social consciousness for the purpose of creating a pacific union, similar to the one which has been socially constructed by liberal democracies. At the same time the study provides indirect support for the constructivist theory of liberal democratic peace.

East Asian relative peace – does it exist? What is it?

Abstract There has been a staggering decline in battle deaths in East Asia. Several recent studies have testified to this trend by referring to it as East Asian Peace. The decline in traditional conflict battle deaths does not, however, constitute peace. It could be possible that battle deaths have merely moved to less traditional types of conflict. The purpose of this article is to see whether the decline in battle deaths has brought about genuine peace.

Southeast Asia and conflict prevention. Is ASEAN running out of steam

Abstract If the assessment of ASEANs success in the past is difficult, speculations on whether ASEAN will be a success will be close to impossibility. Yet this is what is intended in this article. However, this is done by first defining robust criteria of success of conflict prevention. Conflict prevention is successful if conflicts and battle deaths can be avoided, either by means of conflict resolution or transformation, or simply by means of conflict avoidance. By starting with this criterion the article will argue that ASEAN peacefulness cannot be explained by durable objective conditions. Instead, it is built on imagined realities. The imagined realities of the ASEAN Way are getting more difficult to sustain due to their interaction with material and normative/institutional developments. Many of the constructed foundations of the ASEAN Way are unsustainable in the new realities where communication has become easy and uncontrollable, and societies have become wealthier and more democratized. However, the article will show that evidence of existing conflict violence suggests that ASEAN has started to reformulate its approach to conflict prevention and that this has largely been successful.

What Generates, Constitutes and Causes Opportunity-driven Violence? The Case of West Kalimantan

Abstract This article uses the example of West Kalimantan to show some new ways of studying opportunities for violence, contributing especially to the so-called ‘sons of the soil’ conflict debate. By showing that the opportunity structure in West Kalimantan was not primarily material, but social, related to ways to circumvent fear of and norms against violence, this article attempts to update the theoretical premises of the traditional security studies approach to obstacles to conflict and opportunities for violence. The intention is to show how socially constructed realities are relevant in offering and denying opportunities for violence, and how the study of the meanings of actions reveals ways in which opportunities for violent demonstrative argumentation are born in local conflict discourses. The case study shows how powerful narratives enable the justification of violent action and how identities and violent policies mutually constitute each other. This way the empirical evidence calls for understanding the generative and constitutive sources of violence, which are not simply mechanistic causes of conflict.

The Jeju Process and the relative peace in East Asia

Abstract South Koreas contribution to international peace has been on various levels, including official activities and unofficial ones. Furthermore, while its contribution has often been focused on security on the Korean peninsula, the Republic of Korea (ROK) has also contributed to a wider security environment globally and regionally. One of the major instruments of regional East Asian unofficial diplomacy has been the Jeju Process. This article focuses on the contribution of this forum to the relative peace in East Asia by first looking at what kind of activity the Jeju Process represents, and whether East Asian initiatives in general have an impact on East Asian security; or is East Asian security simply determined by global politics? Secondly, it will look at what the regional security is built on and what the main challenges are to that security. Finally, it will then look at how the types of activities that the Jeju Process represents affect the security challenges in East Asia. This paper adopts ...

The Creation and Implementation of the ASEAN Charter

Abstract This review article analyzes and builds on arguments presented in two prominent books, The Making of the ASEAN Charter, by Koh, Manalo, and Woon, and ASEAN: Life after the Charter by Tiwari, on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Charter. The books envision future international cooperation and even international disputes as legal issues. I claim that by doing so, these books participate in the articulation of a reality where international politics and dispute resolution in Southeast Asia are something that belongs to the legal rather than military realm. As such, both books document and represent an effort to desecuritize (move the issue area away from the realm of security) disputes within ASEAN – an undertaking that the Copenhagen School of Security Studies claims cannot be done by means of declarations and speech only.

Security and Peace in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific

Abstract Two recent books make significant contributions to the scholarly literature both in East Asian security studies and in international relations theory more generally. While developing international relations theory by drawing from the non-Western experiences of East Asia, these books complement the existing international relations theory that has been criticized for being overly West-centric. The books also develop some interesting East Asian, neopragmatic ideas on the “theory of theory” in international relations. These ideas have a potential of not only changing our answers to questions about East Asian security but also reformulating the questions we ask in our investigation of international security issues.

Paradigms of Peace:A Pragmatist Introduction to the Contribution to Peace of Paradigms of Social Science

This volume is a study that presents five paradigms of social sciences as logical progressive steps in the field of peace and conflict studies.It is written as a study that employs a constructivist pragamatist meta-theory that guides the assessment of the merits of different social science approaches to peace in a novel way, suggesting completely new ways of looking at peace and the theory of peace and war. It presents strong arguments as well as various scholarly positions arguing against their alternatives. As a pragmatist analysis of approaches to peace and conflict research this book poses the pertinent question “What should we know and consider as real in order to end wars?” and follows that question into the depths of philosophy of social sciences and theories of peace and conflict. Yet true to the ideals of pragmatism the theories presented in this book are kept in touch with praxis by presenting a variety of examples in which the theory materializes in conflict situations. If a theory cannot be related to real-life examples, it does not relate to real life itself and thus it is useless. And usefulness for the real-life problem of conflicts and violence is what this book is all about. Instead of considering relevance as one of the objectives of peace research, this research program serves praxis and nothing else. Pragmatism in this book takes off from the idea of classical pragmatists, Peirce, James and Dewey. However, the book updates the pragmatist meta-theoretical program by offering a constructivist twist to classical pragmatism. Knowledge, theories, concepts and paradigms will not only be assessed for their instrumental value for peace action. Instead, ideas are also assessed for the peacefulness of the realities they themselves constitute.

Politics of Economic Relations Between China and Myanmar

This chapter will look at the political ramifications of China’s economic relations with Myanmar. It looks at the impact of the changes of Myanmar’s international position from an international pariah country into an accepted democratizing member of the international community and how this affects its economic ties with China. Firstly, the focus is on the “political competitiveness” of Chinese economy in Myanmar markets after Myanmar’s position now allows the country to choose its economic partners. Secondly, the chapter will look at how the increasing Chinese political power affects its economic relationship with Myanmar. Will China remain anti-hegemonic with no interest in interfering in Myanmar’s domestic economic decisions? Thirdly, the chapter will look at domestic political realities in Myanmar and their impact on the economic relationship between the two countries.

Legalism, Developmentalism and Securitization: The Case of Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea

There is an implicit, but untested, assumption in the theory of securitization that securitization of an issue area is, in general, a problem, as it rules the issue area outside the reach of democratic accountability, and brings in the privilege of state-centered, militaristic thinking. In this chapter, such an assumption is tested in the case of territorial disputes of the South China Sea. Furthermore the chapter will look at the way in which developmentalist discourses have changed, and how legalistic framing could change the strategic debate in East Asia with regards, to the territorial disputes in the South China Sea. While the theory of securitization has so far suggested that “security” cannot be “unspoken” the analysis of this chapter shows that alternative framing that is in practice incompatible with the security framing, could actively desecuritize issues that have been seen as security issues. Finally, the chapter will reveal the way in which the desecuritization of territorial disputes makes territorial disputes less dangerous. Empirical evidence will be shown about this in the case of developmentalist desecuritization, while the treatment of opportunities to frame territorial disputes in legal terms will be more speculative.