Asia-Pacific Politics Hegemony vs Human Security.

• Author: Evans, Mark
• Position: Book review

ASIA-PACIFIC POLITICS Hegemony vs Human Security

Edited by: Joseph A. Camilleri, Larry Marshall, Michalis S. Michael, and Michael T. Siegel

Published by: Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2007, 247pp, 69.95 [pounds sterling].

Questions about order in the international system of states have long been with us; yet it remains difficult to settle both on what the appropriate ordering principles, norms, or institutions for the international system of states should be and on which level in the system these questions should be analysed.

As several contributors to the September/October 2007 issue of the New Zealand International Review (vol 32, no 5) would agree, regional multilateralism and human security are approaches to security of considerable relevance to analysis of order in the wider international system. Asia-Pacific Politics: Hegemony vs Human Security is timely in this respect.

The sub-title Hegemony vs Human Security unfortunately might be read to suggest that the book approaches its consideration of Asia-Pacific regional order as a simple two-way contest between, on the one hand, the hegemonic power of a super-power and, on the other, that of a global civil society existing outside of traditional state-centric notions of security. Yet most of the contributors to this book do not portray their ideas so starkly; they concede that the notion of human security can be complementary to state security and, in many cases, they implicitly call upon states to safeguard human security.

Asia-Pacific Politics was written as a result of collaboration amongst predominantly Australian and Japanese scholars. The book, after a sound introduction by two of the four editors, is divided into four parts. The first part is essentially a critique of US hegemonic influence in East Asia and the wider Asia-Pacific region. Part Two focuses on Japan's future role in the region and how revision of its constitution might affect this. Part Three looks at the inconsistencies that closer security ties with the United States create for Australia and Japan in the region and calls for greater collaboration between Australia and Japan, especially in the South Pacific. Part Four suggests that middle powers could do more to keep the hegemon engaged in multilateralism and notes that the national interest of a...