Essay Example on The post cold war refers to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991

The post cold war refers to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 to the present To discuss the security challenges facing Southeast Asia in the post war era there is necessary to mention about how the security challenges change from the cold war era to post cold era During the Second World War the security order within the Southeast Asia was mainly influenced by the two superpowers which were the USA and the USSR As the WWII ended the Cold War begins the Southeast Asia region was quickly carved out by the former colonial powers as their sphere of influence Since the USA had played an important role that liberates the Southeast Asia during the WWII the USA started to act as a dominant role that claimed to safeguard the independence of the countries and prevent the communist from invading the region In other words the USA wanted to stop the USSR and China from entering the Southeast Asia Although the USA was defeated in Vietnam War it continue to maintain an off shore presence in Southeast Asia region On the other hand from 1967 Thailand Malaysia Philippines Indonesia and Singapore established Association of Southeast Asian Nations ASEAN Until today over five decades ASEAN has been a significant regional organization that pursuing particularly the region security and peace in order to develop their economic As Adam Malik stated ASEAN can be seen as reflecting the growing political will of the nations of this region to take charge of their own future to work out problems of their development stability and security together and to prevent their region from continuing to remain the arena and the subject of major power rivalry and then conflict qtd in Shee 754 However at that time the fundamental of the ASEAN system was still very weak and turbulent and if ASEAN wanted to construct their region security they had to rely on the external forces Therefore there still have been many fragmentary conflicts 

And it was not until the collapse of the USSR that stopped the turbulent condition and created a new Post Cold War security environment in the Southeast Asia After the Cold War the colonial powers leaved the Southeast Asia region has been in a stable and peaceful condition According to Hassan Among the constructive and stability inducing forces at work in the region is the absence of serious inter state conflict bilateral arrangements for enhancing cooperation and dispute management and the culture of cooperation based on mutual interest that is being fostered by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations 2006 It is true that the regional cooperation offers several benefits for example increase economic bargaining power and minimize feelings of insecurity Shee In addition to those positive outcomes after the cold war there do have some security challenges happening within the Southeast Asia According to JÜRGEN RÜLAND interstate wars and other conventional security threats such as territorial disputes and arms races have subsided while the region is increasingly confronted with non conventional security risks emanating from international terrorism and organized crime separatism and piracy irregular migration poverty environmental issues energy shortages economic crises pandemics such as HIV AIDS and SARS and natural disasters such as the devastating tsunami that hit the coastal areas of Sumatra Malaysia Thailand and Burma Myanmar on 26 December 2004 

In short term that non conventional security threats have emerged and replaced inter state confrontation in Southeast Asia region To address the security challenges confronting Southeast Asia I think the human security is one of the important issues Nowadays the political system in some of Southeast Asia countries still remain unsteady Although the democratization has been widespread during the post cold war era and even today there are still several semi democratic nominally socialist and overtly authoritarian regimes in the region For example Thailand s frequent coup detat As a result the failed political system lead to the human security issues According to UNDP s benchmark half of the regional states have low human development Between one fifth and one third of the population in Cambodia Laos Myanmar Philippines and Vietnam subsist below the national poverty line Indonesia with 18 percent or 40 million people estimated to be living below the national poverty line is not far behind As a result of the poverty the people can not enjoy the basic health life and often suffer from hunger On the other hand the human rights violation In Thailand researchers environmental activists academics journalists and others also face arrests criminal investigations and prosecution Patel 2017 Also in Myanmar after Aung San Suu Kyi s National League for Democracy hold the power they modified several unfair and repressive rule created by the military government however the new government does not give the minorities the same rights 

The Rohingya community in northern Rakhine state has been discriminated by the Myanmar government and it was reported by the UN that the Myanmar government was conducting an ethnic cleansing Rohingya 2017 The second security challenges that concerned the Southeast Asia is maritime security issue Due to the maritime geography advantage of the Southeast Asia region the region is blessed to have the abundant resources and the ocean also play an important role in their economic progress and national income According to the Maritime Security Desktop Exercise MSDE the Southeast Asian States which participated in 2 3 and 4 held in 2011 2012 and 2013 were recognized that piracy maritime terrorism people smuggling and IUU fishing were deemed to be the primary maritime security threats in Southeast Asia 2011 2013 In addition to those pure maritime problems there is also a maritime area issue in the Spratly archipelago of the South China Sea and there are at least six countries China Taiwan the Philippines Malaysia Vietnam and Brunei have claimed the sovereignty of the island