Asian Approaches to Human Security

A major concern of this chapter is to what extent we can find the ‘right fit’ for human-centric security approaches within the Asia-Pacific’s dominant state-centric security paradigm. Doing so is critical for realising the region’s stability. In the absence of such a ‘fit’, the peoples and states of the region are destined to remain mired within a narrow and highly neo-realist framework of unremitting regional crises and relentless state-centric competition. Such rivalries will intensify even while global security challenges are intensifying the imperative for regional states to diversify their security postures and readjust their strategic capabilities.