3 November 2022

The First ASEAN Cooperation Forum on Management of Non-Traditional Security Discussing Challenges and New Strategies For ASEAN Security Management

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On 17 October 2022, The first ASEAN Cooperation Forum on Management of Non-Traditional Security was hosted by the Institute of Non-traditional Security (INS) – Hanoi School of Business & Administration (HSB), Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU). The forum explored the issues regarding non-traditional security management in the ASEAN region under the theme “Solidarity and Proactive Cooperation in Management and Response to Non-traditional Security Risks, Challenges, and Threats in the ASEAN Region”.

The forum focused on discussing the impact of non-traditional security issues on each country and proposing solutions to promote cooperation in order to improve leadership capacity and non-traditional security management. It began with Lieutenant General, Prof.Dr. Nguyễn Xuân Yêm, President of the Institute of Non-Traditional Security (INS), introduced the importance of non-traditional security management discussion and expressed his hope for the forum to strive to become an annual forum of the region. 

Lieutenant General, Prof.Dr. Nguyễn Xuân Yêm also addressed that, since the establishment of the Joint Declaration of ASEAN and China on Cooperation in 2002, many activities and initiatives on non-traditional security and non-traditional security governance have been carried out in many ASEAN countries. Therefore, to strengthen ASEAN cooperation regarding this matter, this forum aimed towards discussing three aspects: mechanisms, policies, and registration; scientific research and training, and administration and implementation.

During the discussion session, Senior Lieutenant General, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyễn Văn Thành pointed out that non-traditional security was still a controversial topic in the ASEAN region, which was only expressed in international meetings. Moreover, the management of non-traditional security in the ASEAN still has many areas needed improvement in both theory and practice. Hence, it is important that this forum should help to find new strategies to develop the current non-traditional security management and response to the non-traditional security threats. In terms of training and scientific research, the forum went into addressing the contribution of the Institute of Non-Traditional Security (INS) in building awareness on national security protection; building and developing an academic school on non-traditional security management, and training high-quality human resources. Additionally, scholars, scientists, and other participants mentioned non-traditional security related proceedings and papers, which surrounds three areas, namely, common issues of non-traditional security; environment security, marine security, and rescue; economic and health security, and cyber and technology security and crime prevention.

Furthermore, towards the end of the discussion, scholars and scientists suggested that ASEAN’s leaders and ASEAN's partner countries include non-traditional security management content into ASEAN cooperation programs and organise ministerial-level conferences on prevention and response to security threats.