The drive toward regional integration in Asia has been gaining ground in recent years, moving toward the goal of establishing an Asian Economic Community. A number of free trade agreements have recently been signed in the region. Even so, many destabilizing elements remain in the region--most notably tribal strife, territorial disputes, and religious conflicts--and these inhibit regional integration. Confrontation between nation states, the most classical example of insecurity, is compounded by new types of threats to human security, such as avian influenza and climate change, and these too are cause for great concern. Such problems and challenges need to be addressed collectively through cooperative ties in the Asian region. In consideration of the above, SPF assisted the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies of Nanyang Technological University, providing support for unofficial discussions on the creation of mechanisms that will ensure security in Asia.
As part of this project, informal discussions were held once a year on the island of Sentosa in Singapore using the unofficial Track II meeting format, bringing together specialists from Asia and beyond (researchers, professionals, diplomats and journalists) to discuss ways to expand and deepen cooperation within the Asian region, so that classical security issues and new types of threats in Asia can be addressed in a coordinated manner. Conclusions reached during these discussions formed the basis for theoretical work aimed at contributing to the establishment of new security cooperation mechanisms for the Asian region. During the first year of the project, security specialists from East Asia, Southeast Asia, India, Australia and the US met to examine security issues and challenges facing the Asian region. This led to the identification of Asian security issues and research topics that would be suitable for further examination, and to agreement on continuing to hold Track II meetings. During the second year of the project, more detailed discussions on establishment of an Asian Community were held, building on the results achieved during the project's first year.
In fiscal 2008, the final year of the project, the project promoted research into the creation of security frameworks, the impact of the economic and financial crisis, non-classical security issues, and the establishment of an East Asian Community. Results of this research were presented at the Sentosa Roundtable Meeting in March 2009, and compiled as a collection of research papers. The project contributed through international Track II meetings to the establishment of human networks for research on an Asian security community, and helped compile the fruit of the meetings into policy proposals that were submitted to the ASEAN Secretariat to promote the establishment
of an Asian Community.