ASEAN BRIEFS ASEAN Military Cooperation on HADR: Challenges and Opportunities
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ASEAN BRIEFS ASEAN Military Cooperation on HADR: Challenges and Opportunities Vol. 5/ Issue 5/ August 2018 ASEAN Briefs is a regular publication about current developments on ASEAN regionalism, especially in the Political-Security, Economic as well as Socio - Cultural Pillars. The Habibie Center - ASEAN Studies Program ASEAN Briefs Project Supervisor: Hadi Kuntjara (Executive Director) Mohammad Hasan Ansori (Director of Program and Research) Head of ASEAN Studies Program/Editor: A. Ibrahim Almuttaqi Researcher: Fina Astriana Muhamad Arif Hana Hanifah Bastaman Vierna Tasya Wensatama Finance and Administration: Anissa Dini Design and Publication: Lany Sekar Executive Summary • Recent humanitarian crises caused by natural disasters in Indonesia highlight the need for ASEAN militaries to develop a more robust cooperation on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. • ASEAN military cooperation on HADR (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief) is still hindered by a number of challenges including the low level of strategic trust among ASEAN member states, the lack of material capabilities to carry out HADR missions as well as domestic political pressures that have often made their way into the considerations to accept external assistance in times of crisis. • ASEAN militaries are recommended to place a greater focus on developing their respective HADR capabilities and to enhance interaction in order to increase strategic trust. ASEAN Military Cooperation on HADR: Challenges and Opportunities 1 Introduction whole accounted for more than fifty percent, or 354,000 of the 700,000 deaths, of global disaster On 28 September 2018, a set of earthquakes, mortalities from 2004 to 2014. The total economic with the strongest magnitude of 7.5 on the Richter loss was USD 91 billion. Second, they highlight scale, struck the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. the important roles played by militaries, acting The earthquakes were followed by a tsunami with collectively, in disaster response. waves of up to 6 metres high sweeping shore-lying houses and buildings on its way. Two weeks after Realising that natural disaster-caused humanitarian the event, confirmed fatalities had reached 2,000 crisis remains one of the biggest security threats with more than 2 million people affected. Two that Southeast Asian countries are facing, it is months before, a series of moderate and strong important to understand the evolving nature earthquakes also hit another part of Indonesia of opportunities and challenges in deploying on the island of Lombok. More than 500 fatalities military assets as part of the broader response to were confirmed with more than 3.,5 million people humanitarian crisis. This edition of The Habibie affected. Center’s ASEAN Briefs reviews the development of military cooperation on Humanitarian Assistance The recent humanitarian crises caused by the and Disaster Relief (HADR) in the ASEAN region natural disasters in Indonesia highlight two and make a case for a greater cooperation among important points. First and foremost, they serve ASEAN militaries on HADR operation. In doing as a reminder of the fact that Southeast Asia is so, it identifies both opportunities and challenges one of the most disaster-prone regions. One that ASEAN member states face in promoting the report, for instance, records that from 1970 until role of militaries in responding to natural disaster- 2014 Southeast Asia had witnessed almost 1,500 caused humanitarian crises. A set of policy occurrences of natural disasters with over 400,000 recommendation for ASEAN policy-makers is fatalities and millions of people affected.And while presented at the end of this policy brief. individual countries in the region face varying degree of risk, the Southeast Asian region as a Militaries and HADR The international humanitarian community by and large recognizes that the military can play a vital role in disaster response.1 Frederick C. Cuny, who helped found the International Crisis Group, a prominent non-governmental, non-profit organisation working to prevent violent conflicts, once stated that “the use of military forces for humanitarian purposes is a long-established tradition in all corners of the world.” He further 2 ASEAN BRIEFS argued that “in the public mind, there is an response first. The military’s special capabilities association between disaster relief and military that include special means of transportation, airlift involvement; indeed, there is often an expectation capabilities, and medical and surgical treatment that military units will assist the civilian population specialties are often crucial in the immediate period in the immediate aftermath of wars and large- after a natural disaster hits. The rapid deployment scale emergencies.” of military medical assistance is critical in the early days of any response when trauma victims directly The end of the Cold War found involvement injured by the disaster urgently require treatment. in responding to natural disaster-caused Moreover, it is often the case that in the aftermath humanitarian crisis making its way into the military of a natural disaster, the military is able to retain lexicon. In addition to other missions such as its robust chain of command which is crucial in peacekeeping and counter-terrorism, HADR now delivering a quick humanitarian response. fall under the rubric of the ‘military operations other than war’ (MOOTW). In many nations, HADR has been regarded as one of the core competencies of their respective militaries since then. Recent development in ASEAN militaries cooperation on HADR In 1995, for instance, the United States’ Joint Chiefs of Staff published Joint Doctrine for Military The pivotal role of the military in providing a Operations Other Than War -widely known as quick response to any natural disaster-caused Joint Pub 3-07- which addressed the purpose, humanitarian crisis has been well-tested in principles, and types of MOOTW expected to Southeast Asia. An unprecedented scale of foreign perform by the U.S. Armed Forces. It was one of military assets was deployed in the aftermath of the earliest cases of a military having a specific the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. In 2013, the doctrinal basis for the use of its capabilities across quick response delivered by foreign militaries the range of operations short of war. HADR or also helped ease the burden of the Philippines what is increasingly called “stability operations”, who were hit by Typhoon Haiyan. Finally, as or more expansively “stability, security, transition noted above, the humanitarian relief effort after and reconstruction” (SSTR) operations, are now the earthquakes and tsunami that hit Indonesia’s said to be “a core U.S. military mission” that Sulawesi and Lombok islands in 2018 were the may involve providing humanitarian and civic latest showcases of the important roles played by assistance to the local populace. In a quite similar militaries, acting collectively, in disaster response. fashion, the United Kingdom’s Strategic Defence Learning from their experience in responding to and Security Review 2015 sets HADR and rescue natural disasters in the last two decades, ASEAN missions as among the eight missions of its armed member states stepped up their effort in building forces. The Indian Navy, meanwhile regards HADR institutional frameworks to support the military’s operations as one of the most likely contingencies involvement in HADR. for which it needs to prepare.2 Catering for HADR operations has assumed even greater priority since the Asian Tsunami relief operation of 2004 that involved the Indian armed forces.3 Closer to Cases of humanitarian military home, the post-reform Indonesian armed forces assistance in ASEAN regard humanitarian assistance and disaster relief as one of its core tasks. The Indian Ocean tsunami that hit the coastal states, including Indonesia, on 24 December 2004 The primacy of the military in HADR owes to the marked a turning point in international cooperation fact that natural disasters often result in massive on HADR. An unprecedented scale of military physical destruction which renders civilian HADR operation was undertaken in responding infrastructures impotent. In such cases, a military to the disaster. Thirty-five states contributed 75 force, especially one that is highly mobile and helicopters, 42 ships, 43 fixed-wing aircrafts responsive, can provide much-needed on-scene and more than 30,000 personnel, including air ASEAN Military Cooperation on HADR: Challenges and Opportunities 3 traffic controllers, medical teams and engineers, to the tsunami relief effort in Indonesian Aceh and to the affected countries.4 As the most affected North Sumatera under Operation Sumatera Assist country, Indonesia received the largest amount had reached $37.4 million.12 of military humanitarian assistance. According to a report published by the Indonesian authority, Responding to a request by the Indonesian 16 militaries of foreign countries, alongside 14 government for transport support issued on 3 United Nations agencies and 195 foreign civilian January 2005, Japan’s Minister of Defence ordered humanitarian groups, were involved in the three- the dispatch to Banda Aceh of a joint operation month emergency relief efforts in Aceh province comprising of air, land, and maritime elements of alone.5 The foreign military components worked Japan’s Self Defence Force. The main Japanese side-by-side on a common mandate of the relief force arrived on 24 January and started airlift 13 relief operation with