The Asia-Pacific region is home to some of the world's hottest flash points, yet security discussions remain woefully ad hoc. There is no regular dialogue forum for regional defense officials, and when leaders do get together, security issues rank second to economic issues. That may change after last weekend's defense summit in Singapore. The Shangri-La Dialogue (named after the hotel in which the meetings were held) is intended to lay the groundwork for a regular discussion of security concerns among the region's defense policymakers. It is long overdue.
Last week's meeting was the brainchild of the Institute of International Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank. The institute holds similar forums around the world, but this was its most ambitious project yet. Not because of the scope -- the Singapore meeting is modeled after a German conclave that is held each year in Munich -- but because the Asia-Pacific region has no history of this type of get-together.
That is odd. Three of the world's hot spots are in the region: the Korean Peninsula, the Taiwan Strait and Kashmir. Nor are the dangers purely theoretical. There have been tensions, and sometimes clashes (as is now the case in Kashmir), in all three over the past few years. The end of the Cold War has had less direct impact in Asia than it did in Europe; some worry that the end of the superpower standoff may have lifted an important damper on conflict. The region is host to a bewildering mix of societies, economies and political systems -- which would suggest the need for confidence-building discussions and dialogue. Yet there is no overarching security framework, despite shared problems and security concerns. In fact, Asia-Pacific governments have long maintained that the region's diversity is the primary obstacle to a broad, regional approach to such issues.