Review: Asia's Oldest Minilateral and FPDA Regional Futures
New book casts rare attention on one of the world's oldest minilateral security arrangements amid the FPDA's role in evolving Indo-Pacific defense futures.
A new book casts rare attention on one of the world's oldest minilateral security arrangements amid its role in evolving Indo-Pacific defense futures.
WonkCount: 1,458 words (~7 minutes)
Review: Asia's Oldest Minilateral and FPDA Regional Futures
Context
“This is a profoundly important minilateral,” Australia’s defense minister Richard Marles said last year of what has been designated one of the world’s oldest minilaterals1. The emphasis on the Five Power Defense Arrangements — founded between Australia, Britain, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore in 1971 — is part of a broader effort to put the spotlight on one of the region’s legacy institutions, despite periodic questions about its relevance and mixed references to it as a minilateral or multilateral (more often as a multilateral in formal settings — Singapore’s defense minister has described it as the “grandfather of multilateralism”)2. As one recent case in point, despite the FPDA’s long history, the institution only got its new official website launch scheduled for last year alongside evolving security engagements featuring its members (see graphic below)3.
Select Key Recent Institutional Developments in Southeast Asia’s Regional and Global Landscape
A new book The Five Power Defense Arrangements by scholar Ang Cheng Guan provides a rare in-depth look at the current and future trajectory of this legacy security institution amid wider shifts in the Indo-Pacific landscape4. Groupings like ASEAN or concepts like the Indo-Pacific have been widely written about, and we have reviewed some of these works on ASEAN Wonk. But books about smaller individual regional or subregional institutions are often rarer. In this case, The Five Power Defense Arrangements adds to a list of around a handful of book-length studies on the FPDA. That list includes The Defense of Malaysia and Singapore by Chin Kin Wah and Five Power Defense Arrangements at Forty edited by Ian Storey, Ralf Emmers and Daljit Singh5. Five Power Defense Arrangements has five main chapters along with a conclusion, running just under 130 pages6.
Analysis
The book articulately situates the institution within evolving regional trends including proliferating minilaterals. As the book notes, the FPDA has outlasted other arrangements like the short-lived Southeast Asia Treaty Organization and now coexists alongside newer minilaterals like AUKUS. This was far from assured when the FPDA was first created — largely as an initial transitional mechanism to defend newly independent Malaysia and Singapore following Britain’s impending regional withdrawal; tensions between the two Southeast Asian neighbors; and past confrontation with Indonesia. Yet evolving trends, such as growing U.S.-China tensions as well as renewed efforts in Southeast Asia by Australia, Britain and New Zealand, raise questions about how to think about the FPDA’s relevance as what is often perceived to be a relatively loose and operationally untested minilateral. “Having described and explained the persistence of the FPDA, one should however not presume that the FPDA will endure forever,” Ang cautiously notes, with the book examining various future scenarios7.
Five Power Defense Arrangements also forecasts the institution’s trajectory amid shifting regional dynamics that are important to watch and will be of interest to scholars, policymakers and businesses alike (see table below for a summary of these priority areas, along with major datapoints to watch and notable details. Paying subscribers can also read the rest of the “Analysis” section and “Implications” section looking at how these dynamics play out in the future).
Future Datapoints to Watch Along With Select Aspects and Key Domains
