Seminar Abstract

In this book, Mely Caballero-Anthony examines how non-traditional security challenges are changing state behavior and security practices in Southeast Asia and the wider East Asia region. Referencing the wide range of transborder security threats confronting Asia today, she analyzes how non-state actors are taking on the roles of “security governors,” engaging with states, regional organizations, and institutional frameworks to address multifaceted problems. From controlling the spread of pandemics and transboundary pollution, to managing irregular migration and providing relief and assistance during humanitarian crises, Caballero-Anthony explains how and why non-state actors have become crucial across multiple levels—local, national, and regional—and how they are challenging regional norms and reshaping security governance. Combining theoretical discussions on securitization and governance with a detailed and policy-oriented analysis of important recent developments, Negotiating Governance on Non-Traditional Security in Southeast Asia and Beyond points us toward “state-plus” governance, where a multiplicity of actors form the building blocks for multilateral cooperative security processes to meet future global challenges.

About the Author

Mely Caballero-Anthony is Professor of International Relations and Head of the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.  She is currently the Secretary-General of the Consortium on Non-Traditional Security Studies in Asia.   From 2013-2017, Prof Anthony was a member of the UN Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters and served at its Chairperson in 2016. She was Director of External Relations at the ASEAN Secretariat from 2011-2012 and was a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Agenda Council on Conflict Prevention.  From 2015-2017, she was Vice President at-large of the Governing Council of the International Studies Association (ISA) and is currently member of the ISA’s Global South Task Force.  She was also a visiting fellow at the Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University in 2015.

Prof. Anthony research interests include regionalism and multilateralism in Asia-Pacific, human security and non-traditional security, conflict prevention and global governance. She has published extensively on a broad range of security issues in Asia-Pacific.  Her latest books, both single-authored and co-edited, include: Negotiating Governance on Non-Traditional Security in Southeast Asia and Beyond (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018), An Introduction to Non-Traditional Security Studies, (London: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2016), Asia on the Move (Japan: JCIE, 2015), and Human Security and Climate Change (London: Routledge, 2014). Prof. Anthony has also led a number of global and regional research projects on international security and global governance.  In 2017, she co-chaired the Global Reflection Group on the ‘Monopoly of the Use of Force- 2.0’ that brought together 21 scholars from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas that examined the nature of security provision in times of uncertainty.  She was also the principal investigator of the MacArthur Asia Security Initiative (ASI) project of Internal Security Challenges in Asia and Cross-Border Implications and was Co-Chair of the Second Murdoch Commission on Food Security, Trade and Partnership in Asia.