East Timor and Asian security

Abstract

The recent crisis in East Timor highlights the inadequacy of existing Asia-Pacific security arrangements to cope with regional crises, and the increasing importance of the relationship of international security and human rights in the post-cold war world. The role of the United States in the crisis was complicated by the legacy of its past support for Indonesian repression in East Timor. However, the inability of other states in the region to act in concert to influence the disposition of the crisis ceded leadership to the United States and Australia. This result imposed costs on all the relevant actors and set back the prospects for developing regional security mechanisms capable of reacting quickly and effectively to such crises in the future. At the same time, the crisis demonstrated the growing role of civil society and communication technologies in international politics, which is increasingly forcing capable powers to cope with the humanitarian imperatives as well as the security concerns that such crises raise. This emerging role suggests that similar crises are likely to arise with increasing frequency. Thus, the need has never been greater for mechanisms enabling both states and non-state parties to cooperatively and rapidly meet the intertwined humanitarian and security challenges such crises pose.