Review: Deciphering Asia Civil-Military Futures

Beyond immediate flashpoints like the South China Sea or Taiwan, a new book analyzes how Asia's militaries factor into the region's geopolitical futures.

Note to Readers: Greetings from Malaysia at a security conference during a big defense week in the country, with twin exhibitions being held amid bit of controversy¹. ASEAN Wonk will have more forthcoming shareable content in this week’s BulletBrief, following from the one last week. Our first post for this week is a book review as part of our regular SpeedRead series.

A recent book offers insights into a critical variable driving the geopolitical and geoeconomic futures of key states in Southeast Asia and the wider Indo-Pacific region.

WonkCount: 1,513 words (~7 minutes)

Review: Assessing Asia Civil-Military Futures

Context

"I’m not in this position to compromise with or please the military,” Thailand’s civilian defense minister Sutin Klungsang responded in the country’s parliament earlier this year amid suggestions that the government had put earlier calls for military reform on the backburner². Sutin’s comments spotlighted just one of several cases within the spectrum of civil-military ties in Southeast Asia which we’ve featured here on ASEAN Wonk, from cases such as Thailand where the military has governed cyclically to Indonesia where worries remain about residual influence under incoming president Prabowo Subianto despite the military having relinquished its formal political role in decades past³. The blurring of civil and military spaces is also visible in other parts of the Indo-Pacific, with a case in point being China’s use of the maritime militia as part of its South China Sea assertiveness⁴.

Select Recent Developments in Civil-Military Ties in Southeast Asia

Source: ASEAN Wonk Team

A new book titled Asian Military Evolutions by scholars Alan Chong and Nicole Jenne provides granular insights for those interested in a critical variable driving the geopolitical and geoeconomic futures of key regional states. Asian Military Evolutions assesses how complex dynamics between military leaders, civilian politicians and societal actors drive realities in countries across critical realms regularly seen by practitioners — including business participation, politicized nation-building, defense diplomacy and military exercises⁵. In doing so, it widens the lens of civil-military relations beyond the struggle for democratic control seen today in countries like Myanmar or Pakistan and discussed previously by scholars like Muthiah Alagappa and Samuel Huntington⁶. The book has 16 main chapters and runs 348 pages.

Analysis

Asian Military Evolutions provides a comprehensive approach to understanding how military ties with civilian actors fit within a country’s overall orientation and outlook. The authors assess how the military’s role in some major countries not only defies notions of democratic control, but is in fact embedded and fused into certain ideological, developmental and diplomatic tendencies advanced by civilian politicians in creative and novel ways⁷. The book’s case studies effectively blend granular research with compelling examples familar to regional experts and watchers. This includes the use of popular culture by the Japan Self-Defense Forces to drive its rising profile in Southeast Asian defense diplomacy and the institutional constraints India faces as it seeks to become a net security provider in the Indian Ocean and an influential player in the wider region⁸. There is even a reference to an oft-forgotten notable development in Malaysia’s revolving door of recent governments: the country’s first-ever defense white paper in 2020 which drew on concepts such as Pertahanan Menyeluruh (total or comprehensive defense, abbreviated as HANRUH)⁹.

The book also charts out key areas to watch in the coming years, which will be useful to governments, companies as well as researchers and watchers. The book delves into five specific areas, with notable cases as well as future indicators to watch (see the table below for a snapshot of these important areas as well as select case studies, and the rest of the “Analysis” section as well as the “Implications” section for insights into what to watch and prospects for the region and the world).

Key Policy Fusion Areas, Datapoints to Watch and Regional Examples