THIRD PLENARY SESSION
New challenges for crisis management in the Asia-Pacific Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, Minister of Defence, Malaysia
Click to see video
Malaysian defence minister Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin
challenges, he said, the most immediate is the first,
Tun Hussein provided the first of three different per-
with the Asia-Pacific in Daesh’s ‘cross hairs’. This
spectives on crisis management in the Asia-Pacific.
threat, according to the minister, is multidimensional.
Hishammuddin warned that the region is faced with
He referred to the ‘insidious’ nature of radicalisation,
a range of fires, small and big, that regional powers
and he asked whether the response to this challenge is
will have to scramble to put out. He suggested that the
political, socio-economic or theological.
region is in a paradoxical position: at relative peace,
On the Korean Peninsula, Hishammuddin argued
but with underlying tensions and actions by non-
that the worsening situation is not exclusively due to
state actors that threaten regional tranquillity; global
‘the erratic, unpredictable’ nature of the Pyongyang
economics shifting eastwards but with regional econ-
regime. He highlighted controversy over the Terminal
omies fragile; and regional security still predicated
High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system, which
upon ‘the whims’ of major powers.
he said makes for a potentially combustible situation,
Hishammuddin identified five key challenges: the
and called for restraint. Regarding the South China
proliferation of the Asia-Pacific ambitions of Islamic
Sea, the minister highlighted progress on the frame-
State, also known as ISIS or ISIL; escalating tensions
work for a code of conduct between China and the
and volatility on the Korean Peninsula; ‘inconsisten-
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
cies in the quest for hegemony in the South China
But he said that he remained guarded, and cautioned
Sea’; democratisation of the information flow, fake
about the risk of a ‘black swan’ event. He said the
news, and cyber security vulnerabilities; and the rise
South China Sea situation must be resolved peace-
of authoritarian and populist nationalism. Of these
fully through multilateral platforms.
34
The IISS Shangri-La Dialogue