COMMENTARY
Asia Pacific Center focuses on security, terror
By John Griffin
Some have called it "Hawai'i's other East-West Center." But that doesn't adequately describe the nine-year-old Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies, which hums along in a quiet corner of Fort DeRussy in Waikiki.
Stephanie Hika photo
True, both receive federal money and are in the business of higher education, professional conferences and advanced research. Equally important, each has thousands of alumni (the East-West Center about 50,000) who are increasingly moving up the leadership ranks in Asia and the Pacific islands, assets to Hawai'i and our nation.
Five of the more than 100 people who took part in the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies executive course watch the graduation ceremony Aug. 5 at Fort DeRussy in Waikiki. Senior military officers and representatives from 35 countries attended the 12-week course.
The security center gets its $13.8 million annual budget from the Department of Defense and is one of five such regional institutions. The East-West Center receives a $15.3 million annual grant through the State Department, plus even more from other federal and private research and program grants.
So the words for them are complementary and parallel.
The security center deals with the aspects of security beyond fighting wars. These include such topics as improving water supplies, other public-health needs, energy issues, corruption, transnational crimes like smuggling of drugs, money and people, piracy and — increasingly — anti-terrorism. The East-West Center mandate is much broader, more academic and more removed from government.
"We are not an isolated military think tank," says security center president H.C. "Hank" Stackpole, a spirited retired Marine Corps general with business and academic credentials who is to leave the job in December.
As he talks about the security center's activities, Stackpole uses such terms as "human security," "preventive defense," "soft power" and "'ohana."
Although the security center has matured and expanded since it opened in 1995 on the top floors of a Waikiki business building, it still focuses on three academic aspects involving military and civilian leaders who deal with security.
They are:
• The College of Security Studies each year presents three 12-week executive courses for mid-level military officers and civilian officials (see accompanying article). So far, that has added up to 24 classes with about 1,500 participants from 45 countries (North Korea and Myanmar have not been invited. After participating in the past, China is not sending officers to these courses but does to center conferences).
The mix in these programs has included a 4-to-1 ratio of foreigners to Americans and a 3-to-2 ratio of military to civilians. The same mix has pertained in the shorter, twice-a-year courses offered for higher-level officers such as generals and vice-ministers.
Anti-terrorism has long been part of various core and elective courses, says Lee Endress, the college's acting dean. And a new course has given it special emphasis.
Sessions can get lively, those involved say. Questions and some criticism come up about U.S. policy, motives and actions, especially involving Iraq.
"Any idea that we could brainwash these people is crazy," said the center's longtime State Department adviser, retired Ambassador Charles Salmon, in answer to a question. "They're smart, and they're critical without being overly negative."
Stackpole stresses that the three pillars of the security center's programs are nonattribution, transparency (i.e., not using any classified information) and mutual respect among all participants.
The security center puts on a dozen conferences of varying length and numbers each year. So far, there have been 86 conferences with more than 5,400 participants from 59 countries, including Russia, Bulgaria, Chile and Canada.
Topics this year include security trends, POW and MIA accounting, biosecurity threats, different kinds of terrorism, U.S.-Japan security relations, Asian security and economic development, and enhancing security cooperation on the Korean Peninsula. Last year saw meetings on the Russian Far East, humanitarian emergencies, the geopolitics of energy, India and the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean, and island-state security.
Several people at the center I talked with noted that there are different types and definitions of terror.
• Research and publications have also grown with an international staff and visiting researchers.
"Publications have gone from zero to 30 a year," says Satu Limaye, who has headed the research program for the past six years.
New publications include large special assessments on how Asian nations view China, and the various Asia-Pacific responses to U.S. security policies. Other recent books, study series and papers have covered such subjects as Malaysia's 2004 elections, the regional arms market, Oceania's post-9/11 concerns, Indonesia foreign relations, Japan's regional concerns, Hindu nationalism, and rethinking education in China.
While the Asia Pacific Center for Security Studies obviously has momentum and maturity, Stackpole's December departure should be a special milestone.
The job is being advertised, and the successor will be selected by the U.S. Pacific commander at Camp Smith in close consultation with the Pentagon. It may be hard to find someone with Stackpole's combination of having been a top military commander, a businessman in Asia and a professor at Stanford University. One civilian source said it's necessary to have someone with respected military experience.
• As the East-West Center has for many years, the security center is focusing on its alumni, with chapters started in several nations. International networking among former participants, including in times of need or tension, is considered one of the big benefits.
And like the East-West Center, the security center now has its community foundation, a nonprofit corporation to provide suggestions and financial support to supplement some programs. The foundation membership, headed by business leader Art Tokin, includes many leading business, professional, and retired military figures.
So there is a complementary nature among the two institutions, some visiting lectures between them, as well as cooperation with civilian regional organizations such as Pacific Forum CSIS.
Moreover, security-center participants get out into the Hawai'i community several ways, from living and sometimes cooking in Waikiki condos to visiting the Legislature and Honolulu police station and riding in patrol cars as part of their courses.
Indeed, Stackpole, like others, made a point of citing Hawai'i and its multiracial atmosphere as ideal for the kind of friendly and realistic interaction they want to promote. You might say they seek to take the concept of 'ohana to another level.
John Griffin, former editor of The Advertiser's editorial pages, is a frequent contributor.
