Tan, See Seng

Dr. See Seng Tan is Assistant Professor, Program Director for Multi-Lateralism and Regionalism Research, and the Deputy Head of Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, located at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the Arizona State University. Dr. Tan’s most recent books include An Agenda for the East Asia Summit: Thirty Recommendations for Regional Cooperation in East Asia (Singapore: Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, 2005) and Asia-Pacific Security Cooperation: National Interests and Regional Order (M.E. Sharpe, 2004). He is also the author of numerous articles and book chapters on issues regarding international security and policy.

Role of Knowledge Communities in Constructing Asia-Pacific Security

2007 0-7734-5442-X
This present study is an effort to address the dearth of critical and/or post-positivist perspectives in security studies of and about the Asia-Pacific region. It demonstrates how regional communities of security specialists and intellectuals, including knowledge communities such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – Institute of Strategic and International Studies and the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific, have contributed to just such a state-centric, political image at the expense of alternative ideas and, in so doing, have promoted and legitimized their own identities as authorities on regional security. This work shows how post-positivist analysis, contrary to what its many detractors may think, is neither prolix nor self-indulgent. Rather, it invites critical reflection on the conditions that produce particular ‘urgent questions’ (albeit at the expense of other questions) of about international relations, such as the question of Asia-Pacific regional security.