The COUNCIL FOR SECURITY COOPERATION IN THE ASIA PACIFIC (CSCAP) was established in 1992–1993 as a network of policy institutions to provide “a more structured regional process of a non-governmental nature … to contribute to the efforts towards regional confidence building and enhancing regional security through dialogues, consultation and cooperation” in the region. This network of policy institutions constituting CSCAP has since become the premier second or Track 2 organization contributing to the discussion of security cooperation by government officials at the official Track 1 level.

This book is intended to provide a critical assessment of the role of Track 2 diplomacy in the Asia-Pacific region, and, more specifically, of CSCAP. It describes CSCAP’s formation and development, reviewing its principal activities since its establishment, particularly with respect to its relationship with the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), its declared Track 1 counterpart. It also identifies and analyses perceived weaknesses in CSCAP’s organization and failures in its
processes, some of which derive from its fundamental connections with official (governmental) agencies constituting Track 1. The main body of the book is prospective, providing analyses of current and projected developments with respect to the evolving regional architectures, the increasingly “crowded” institutional landscape, the place of ASEAN and the ARF in contending architectures, the role of Track 2, and the increasing challenges of non-traditional security issues. This sets the context for the assessment of CSCAP’s prospects for its next couple of decades.