Background of CSCAP's Establishment

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Background of CSCAP's Establishment

Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and the subsequent end of the East-West Cold War, calls grew for a re-evaluation of security frameworks in the Asia Pacific region. While recognizing that several bilateral military alliances centered on the United States contributed to regional stability, there was a growing view that trust should be fostered at the regional level, political and security dialogues promoted, and multilateral security cooperation established. This perspective was clearly reflected in then Foreign Minister Taro Nakayama's speech at the ASEAN Expanded Meeting of Foreign Ministers in July 1991.

From 1991 to 1992, the The Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), together with the Asean Institutes of Strategic and International Studies (ASEAN-ISIS) and stakeholders from the Pacific Forum (which was affiliated with the Center for Strategic & International Studies [CSIS] at the time) and the Seoul Forum for International Affairs (SFIA), held numerous meetings with this objective in mind, working toward the creation of a private international organization to promote cooperation on security issues in the Asia-Pacific region. This effort culminated in the declaration of CSCAP's establishment in June 1993. In December of the same year, representatives from ten research institutes gathered in Lombok, Indonesia, to adopt the CSCAP Charter and agree on establishing the Secretariat in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

During this process, the representatives committed to forming member committees in each country composed of researchers, experts, and government officials. In June 1994, the first CSCAP General Meeting was convened with the participation of the ten member committees from the respective countries. The process leading to the establishment of CSCAP had a significant influence on the creation of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1994, which became a key platform for intergovernmental security dialogue.

*For the full text of the CSCAP Charter, please refer to the URL below.
http://www.cscap.org/index.php?page=cscap-charter

*For details on CSCAP's background and activities, please refer to the URLs below.
http://www.cscap.org/index.php?page=about-us