The nature of Lao security challenges

AbstractEast Asia (including the sub regions of Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia) has been viewed as ranking among the most dangerous or conflictual regions on the planet, enduring colonial and Cold War legacies and several potential flashpoints. Regional international security governance has focused on nonintervention and conflict management, whereas domestic governance has focused on national security, development, and unity under tight central government control. Laos is a paradigmatic case of East Asian security policy prioritization. Its authoritarian government focuses, primarily, on traditional state-centric conceptualizations of security, and top-down, macroeconomic models and mega-projects to develop the country out of insecurity. This research project uses a qualitative approach consisting of literature review, document analysis, and limited interviews in the field. The conclusions are that, while by some measurements Lao governmental policymaking has been successful in achieving stated security objectives, in terms of nontraditional security (NTS) and human security considerations, these policies may not only be considered insufficient, but could also be counter-productive, storing up challenges for the future. Hence, the final section contains policy prescription for a more sustainable security situation in the Lao PDR.Keywords: Laossecuritynontraditional security (NTS)human securitygovernance AcknowledgmentsAs is common in the literature, “The People’s Democratic Republic of Laos (the Lao PDR)” and the short form of “Laos” are used interchangeably in this paper. The author would like to acknowledge the swift and very helpful feedback of two anonymous reviewers.Notes1 Kent Calder and Min Ye, The Making of Northeast Asia (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010).2 Amitav Acharya, ““Guns and Butter: Why do Human Security and Traditional Security Co-exist in Asia?” Global Economic Review: Perspectives on East Asian Economies and Industries 32, no. 3 (2003): 9.3 Yukiko Nishikawa, “Human security in Southeast Asia: Viable solution or empty slogan?” Security Dialogue 40, no. 2 (2009): 213–36.4 Brendan Howe, “Human Security, Peacebuilding, and the R2P in East Asia,” Asian Journal of Peacebuilding 7, no. 2 (2019): 184.5 Brendan Howe, “Three Futures: Global Geopolynomic Transition and Northeast Asia,” Modern Asian Studies 39, no. 4 (2005): 769–800.6 Yuji Uesugi and Oliver Richmond, “The Western International Peace Architecture and the Emergence of the Eastphalian Peace” Global Society 35, no. 1 (2021): 1–21.7 Boutros Boutros-Ghali, An Agenda for Peace: Preventive Diplomacy, Peacemaking, and Peacekeeping (New York: UN, 1992).8 Taylor Owen, “Human Security – Conflict, Critique and Consensus: Colloquium Remarks and a Proposal for a Threshold-Based Definition.” Security Dialogue 35, no. 3 (2004): 375.9 Ibid.10 Ian Holliday and Brendan Howe, “Human Security: A Global Responsibility to Protect and Provide.” Korean Journal of Defense Analysis 23, no. 1 (2011): 77.11 Ibid., 81.12 UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), “Human Development Report 1994: New Dimensions of Human Security” (United Nations Development Programme, New York, 1994).13 Ibid.14 Sadako Ogata and Amartya Sen, Human Security Now: Commission on Human Security, Final Report (New York: Commission on Human Security, 2003), 4.15 Su-Ming Khoo, “Humane Security: Solidarity in Policy and Practice: Journal of Human Development and Capabilities (2023) https://doi.org/10.1080/19452829.2023.2200241 (accessed August 4, 2023).16 UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), New Threats to Human Security in the Anthropocene: Demanding Greater Solidarity (United Nations Development Programme, New York, 2022).17 Ibid., 6.18 Ibid.19 Ibid., 7.20 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), “What is Human Development?” (2015). http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/what-human-development (accessed May 20, 2023).21 Jae-jung Suh, “Rethinking national and human security in North Korea” in Non-traditional security issues in North Korea, ed. 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Howe (Ph.D. TCD) howeb@ewha.ac.kr is Dean and Professor of the Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University, where he has worked since 2001. He currently also serves as the President of the Asian Political and International Studies Association. He has previously held research and teaching positions at the East-West Center, Hawaii, Freie Universität Berlin, De La Salle University, Manila, the University of Sydney, Korea National Defense University, Georgetown University, Trinity College Dublin, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, and Beijing Foreign Studies University. He researches on traditional and non-traditional security in the Indo-Pacific, human security, governance, and comprehensive peacebuilding. He has published over 100 related books, articles, and book chapters.