On Friday 18 March 2005, Dr Ron Huisken (Senior Fellow, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University) addressed Members of the Institute on “America’s New Military Footprint in Asia”. Professor Douglas Webber of INSEAD chaired the session. Organised by IISS-Asia, the event took place at Prestige Room, 9 Raffles Place, Level 57 Republic Plaza.
Synopsis:
A decade and a half after the end of the Cold War, the United States is making a dedicated political effort to transform the overseas military presence that it established during that prolonged conflict. The key drivers for this transformation include a world with markedly different contours in security terms, a United States that occupies a global position without historical precedent and that has embraced the Revolution in Military Affairs in order to redefine war on its own terms. What kind of military posture in East Asia does the United States aspire to? What are East Asian states looking for in terms of a US military presence? Are these agendas compatible? Is it possible to forecast probable outcomes?
Prior to joining SDSC in March 2001, Dr Huisken was a senior policy adviser to the Australian government, working predominantly on arms control and security issues in the departments of Defence, Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Prime Minister & Cabinet. In 1990-94, he served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the Australian Embassy in Bonn, Germany. Before entering government, he was a Research Fellow at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute for several years, taught economics at the University of Malaya, and had a working stint with the United Nations Center for Disarmament Affairs in New York. Dr Huisken’s research interests range from East Asian security to alliance politics, arms control, nuclear weapons and ballistic missile defence.
