Asian Military Evolutions: Civil-Military Relations in Asia

The grounded study of Asia's civil-military relations is overdue. In this new edited volume published by Bristol University Press last month, Alan Chong and Nicole Jenne argue that civil-military relations in Asia ought to be analysed under the concept of Asian military evolutions. Civil-military relations, or CMR in short, have conventionally been derived as a subject worthy of political and scholarly attention because it addresses the question of the viability of a democracy while it has to constitutionally control its so-called 'armed guardian'. The theme of Asian military evolutions addresses both deliberate and accidental political efforts to defuse disputes between civilian politicians and military leaders over the operation of political order, and builds on innovative attempts to treat CMR as a productive field for defence diplomacy and military operations other than war (MOOTW). Of course, the 'threat to democracy' problematique CMR has conventionally dealt with has not completely lost relevance as events over the past decade have shown across Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. However, CMR is increasingly becoming recognized as a key component of strategies to deal with Asia's broadening national and transnational security agendas, including development and what has become popularly known human security. Asian Military Evolutions contains 13 country studies and one issue based chapter on the peacekeeping dimension of CMR in Southeast Asia. Given the coverage of the book, this seminar will feature remarks by a cross-section of five of its authors as well as an incisive discussion by a two experts from the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs.

Chair

Dr Gregory Raymond, Lecturer in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University

Speakers

Alan Chong, Senior Fellow, Centre for Multilateralism Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies

Nicole Jenne, Associate Professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Institute of Political Science

Rashed Uz Zaman, Professor, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Tuneer Mukherjee, Independent Researcher in Asian Security Studies

Gregory Raymond, Lecturer in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University

Yee Kuang Heng, Professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo

Aries Arugay, Professor of Political Science, University of the Philippines at Diliman, Manila

Jun Yan Chang, Research Fellow, Head of Military Studies Programme, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies

Discussants

Beverley Loke, Lecturer in the Department of International Relations, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University

Paul Hutchcroft, Professor of Political and Social Change, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University