ABSTRACT
The importance of the Southeast Asian sea lanes of communications (SLOCs) to the economies of both established and emerging Asian powers is beyond question and thus of utmost significance for the overall global economy. Moreover, the attention devoted to safeguarding the innocent passage of commercial shipping through the Southeast Asian straits is only going to increase as countries such as China, India and Japan are scrambling to secure deliveries of energy and raw materials to fuel their booming economies. For instance, China recently surpassed Japan to become the number one ‘user’ nation of transports through the Malacca Strait. Thus, the safety and security of the SLOCs are already hot topics in AsianPacific affairs and both littoral states and user countries pursue policies they claim are designed to achieve those goals. The purpose of this introductory chapter is to explore and analyse the nature of the security challenges facing Southeast Asia and then discuss the various security options, be they national, bilateral or multilateral, and to what extent they are available.
