Conceptualising humanitarian civil-military partnerships in the Asia-Pacific: (Re-)ordering cooperation

ABSTRACT

The Asia-Pacific is a dynamic region that is exposed to multiple natural hazards. This article explores how recent developments have influenced the relationship between civilian and military actors in the Asia-Pacific to facilitate an improvement in humanitarian civil–military coordination to assist and protect disaster-affected communities. It investigates civilian and military engagement in disaster preparedness and response activities in the Asia-Pacific, and draws on the literature on civil–military relations and technical reports to further conceptualise these. This article analyses the 4Cs of disaster partnering in humanitarian civil–military partnerships in the Asia-Pacific—(1) Coexistence/Communication, (2) Cooperation, (3) Coordination, (4) Collaboration [Martin, E., I. Nolte, and E. Vitolo. 2016. “The Four Cs of Disaster Partnering: Communication, Cooperation, Coordination and Collaboration.” Disasters 40 (4): 621–643]. It argues that the Regional HADR Coordination Centre (RHCC), UN Cluster System, the Regional Consultative Group on Humanitarian Civil–Military Coordination for Asia and the Pacific (RCG), and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) centric mechanisms are illustrative of different orders of disaster partnering that are best understood as a combination of distinct and sequential activities. Through a clearer conceptualisation of humanitarian civil–military partnerships in the Asia-Pacific, this article aims to provide more informed expectations on what these partnerships may or may not deliver.

KEYWORDS:

• Cooperation
• humanitarian affairs
• disaster partnership
• civil–military relations
• Asia-Pacific
• ASEAN

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Catherine Jones and Garren Mulloy for their project leadership and comments on multiple drafts, the reviewers for their constructive criticism, and participants for their feedback at the workshop on ‘Peacekeeping, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief’ at CSIS-Indonesia on July 26–27 2018, the roundtable discussion on ‘HADR, Peacekeeping and East Asia—cooperation or competition?’ at the ISA Asia-Pacific Regional Conference, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore on July 5 2019, and the workshop on ‘East Asia, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief: supporting regional capacity building and responses’, in Bangkok on July 8 2019. This work was supported by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust under Grant SRG\170645. All errors remain their own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Alistair D. B. Cook is Coordinator of the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Programme and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. His research interests focus on the Asia-Pacific, and Myanmar in particular, on humanitarian affairs, foreign policy and regional cooperation.

Sangeetha Yogendran was a Senior Analyst on the Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Programme, Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies during this research project. She is now a PhD Fellow, Human Rights Centre, Faculty of Law and Criminology, University of Ghent, Belgium.

Notes

1 ‘Dunantist’ organisations, named after the founder of the International Committee of the Red Cross Jean Henri Dunant, aim to subscribe strictly to the humanitarian principles upon which the Red Cross was founded and limit their action exclusively to humanitarian crises (Cunningham 2018, 17–18).

2 The APC-MADRO participants included Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, China, European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Russian Federation, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor Leste, United States, Vietnam, Pacific Island Nations, UNOCHA, UN Agencies, IFRC, INGOs, Asia Pacific Civil-Military Centre of Excellence Australia, Centre for Excellence in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance of United States of America.

3 As of 2019, the ASEAN Dialogue Partners are 9 countries – China, Japan, Republic of Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Russia and Canada – and 1 organisation – The European Union.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Leverhulme Trust [grant number SRG\170645].