多国間安全保障メカニズムのなかの第二トラック外交 -アジア太平洋安全保障協力会議の理論的考察

国際的行為主体の再検討

抄録

One of the primary characteristics of contemporary security politics in the Asia-Pacific region is the intensification of emerging multilateral security cooperation mechanisms. These are comprised of both ‘track one’ intergovernmental and ‘track two’ non-official channels. The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) are the most prominent of these channels and this article examines the roles and functions of the CSCAP as a mechanism facilitating second-track diplomacy. It suggests two theoretical foundations, which can be applied to evaluate the CSCAP's significance. Both “epistemic community” and “constructivist” theories of world politics are employed as appropriate frameworks.
It has been argued that the effectiveness of second-track diplomacy is its informality and inclusiveness, allowing concerned parties to participate more easily in a dialogue on sensitive issues. They therefore serve as useful alternative for official diplomatic bargaining. In the Asia-Pacific context, the CSCAP, which takes a ‘participatory’ approach to regional security, is more inclusive in its memebership than the AKF, as it encompasses security-issue researchers at various institations. However, little effort has been made to apply theoretical suppositions relevant to the CSCAP expertise and to test them empirically. To do so may allow us to better illuminate why a more inclusive and participatory security mechanism could help facilitate multilateral security cooperation.
This article emphasises the need to grapple with the ideational factors underlying this second-track diplomacy, namely the power of ideas, knowledge, and cognition. These factors can be operationalised by the application of epistemic community and constructivist approaches, neither of which should be treated as mutually exclusive. Both share ontological propositions which can be usefully applied in assessing the relative effectiveness of intersubjective understandings upon power, interest, and identity in international relations.
The first section describes the membership, organizational framework, and the expected functions of the CSCAP, by drawing on that grouping's Charter adopted in 1993. The second component explores the two theoretical perspectives cited above and their relevancy in understanding the CSCAP. These two perspectives should not be uncritically applied, however, to the multilateral security discourse now emerging in the Asia-Pacific region. Critiquing both the epistemic community approach and the “third-image” constructivism approach, this section offers a synthesis between the two theoretical approaches, namely a “constructive epistemic community”.
The third section examines the three variables required for the emergence of such a community. These are: (1) uncertainties; (2) interpretation; and (3) implications for institutionalization. To trace the development of the CSCAP since its inception in 1994 in an empirical context, the Australian CSCAP and the Maritime Cooperation Working Group will be employed as case studies.