Terrorism and Security in Asia: Redefining Regional Order?

While a good deal has been written and said about the threat posed by terrorism in Southeast Asia, there has been little work analyzing the impact of terrorism and the war on terror on Asian regional order as a whole. The paper focuses on four areas which would be relevant to such an assessment: (1) The growing place of terrorism in the national threat perceptions and the security strategies of states; (2) the US strategic re-engagement in Southeast Asia as part of its war on terror and its impact on the regional balance of power; (3) the impact of the war on terror on domestic politics and state-society relations; and (4) the state of regional cooperation against terrorism and its impact on regional stability. [Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies WP 113, 2004]