Canberra Papers on Strategy and Defence No. 132

This monograph includes the discussion papers presented at the Fifth Meeting of the CSCAP Maritime Cooperation Working Group held in Kuala Lumpur on 17 and 18 November 1998. It is the fifth in the series to be published by the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre on behalf of the CSCAP Maritime Cooperation Working Group.

Maritime cooperation has become an important consideration in the Asia-Pacific region. It is essential for the effective management of the marine environment ('oceans governance') and is regarded as an important contributor to regional security as a confidence- and security-building measure (CSBM). There is possibly no other region of the world where maritime cooperation is so important or more necessary. There is certainly no other region of the world where maritime cooperation has gained such specific recognition as it has in the Asia-Pacific during the 1990s. The need for maritime cooperation in the region flows from both the importance of maritime issues and the complexity of the regional marine environment.

The papers in this monograph explore the strengths and weaknesses of existing processes of maritime cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. They reflect the desire and necessity to pursue the widening and deepening of existing cooperation and other maritime CSBMs. Within the Working Group there is increasingly frank and full discussion of such issues, and this is reflected in the interesting and thought-provoking papers contained within.

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