Abstract

What is the relationship between the maritime domain and non-traditional security threats in East and South-East Asia? The concept of non-traditional security opens up the possibility that someone besides the state is threatened, and someone or something besides another state is doing the threatening. There is at this point a substantial literature on non-traditional security and the allied concept of human security, and it will not be rehashed here. Instead, I am primarily interested in how the maritime domain in East and South-East Asia serves as a theatre for threats to the security of the state, as well as to human security, but securing the state and securing the population do not always go hand in hand. Using three cases of maritime security issues in East Asia—territorial disputes, maritime piracy and terrorism—I will focus on two broad scenarios in the maritime domain where state and non-state security may (or may not) be at odds.