Aus-CSCAP, 4-5 September 2008

Links:

Speech given by Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith at Aus-CSCAP [external link]

Research paper commissioned by Asialink exploring issues that cause incite fear in Indonesian and Australian nationals respectively, Debnath Guharoy, Roy Morgan Research [pdf, 4.6 mb, 26 pages]

Indonesia fears fading but US a worry, Hamish McDonald, Asia-Pacific Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald (online), September 8, 2008.

Aus-CSCAP Forum Report:

The 'Regional Security Issues Forum' of the Australian Committee of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) was held in Melbourne last Thursday/Friday (4-5 September), and included a breakfast lecture from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Hon Stephen Smith MP. The Co-Chairs of the Australian Committee are Professor Des Ball (SDSC) and Professor Tony Milner of the Faculty of Asian Studies. The Forum was held in the Sidney Myer Asia Centre at the University of Melbourne, and was hosted by Asialink. It is the first time CSCAP has held a meeting outside Canberra: and the Forum brought together ANU academics and Commonwealth Government specialists (from DFAT, the Department of Defence and the Australian Federal Police) with leading representatives of the Victorian business and academic community. All of the Melbourne-based universities were represented at the Forum. The Commonwealth officials included Ambassador Bill Paterson, whose appointment as the new Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism was announced at the meeting by the Minister.

The Minister's speech stressed ASEAN and especially Indonesia, and pointed out that the Prime Minister's Asia Pacific Community initiative had "started a conversation with our friends and neighbours". Mr. Smith said that "shaping our evolving regional architecture in ways that suit the diverse nation states of our region is a challenging task, but it's a task which the Government believes Australia must be engaged in". He suggested that the Prime Minister's proposal might lead to a "new piece of architecture" or change might "evolve and emerge from and through the existing architecture". One of the sessions of the Forum itself examined regional architectures - noting the degree of fluidity and contest, and seeking the underlying reasons for the architectural "messiness". Other panels examined the security aspects of foreign (in particular, Chinese) ownership in our resources sector, the prospects for controlling nuclear proliferation (including discussion of the government's new initiative), the crisis in Pakistan (and its implications for the war in Afghanistan) and current progress in the struggle against terrorism. A special session was devoted to Indonesia - examining current ethnic, religious and regionalist issues from a security viewpoint. The results of a new survey of Indonesian and Australian opinion - carried out by Roy Morgan Research specifically for the CSCAP Forum - were also presented.

The poll suggests wide divergence in security perceptions. Seventy-nine percent of Indonesians questioned saw the United States as the country most likely to create difficulty for their country (compared with 23% of Australians). The country causing Australians most anxiety was Indonesia (53%) - although only 29% of Indonesians considered Australia in this way. The security development most Indonesians feared was "the break-up of their country" (66%); and only 6% of Australians expressed that fear. What Australians most feared was climate change (58%). The area in which there is convergence is terrorism: 51% Indonesian, 50% Australians.

The survey suggested a significant difference in views between younger (under 35) and older Australians: younger Australians are much less likely to be anxious about Indonesia than older ones, and much more likely to be concerned about the United States.

Asialink, The University of Melbourne

Aus-CSCAP, 4-5 September 2008

Links: