加拿大與亞太安全：對台灣的啟示

An Elusive Partnership? Canada and Asia Pacific Security

Amitav Acharya ； J. D. Kenneth Boutin ； 章榮明

《加拿大研究》 2期 (1998/03) Pp. 249-266

https://doi.org/10.30378/CS.199803_(2).0008

並列摘要

In 1990, Canada began to play an active role in the debates and policy initiatives aimed at reshaping the security order of the Asia Pacific region. Although Canada had been involved in the region’s security affairs in the past (as a contributor to the defence of South Korea in the Korean War and as a key member of the international control commissions in Indo-China), this was the first major peacetime Canadian role aimed at promoting multilateral approaches to regional security. The Canadian engagement has several aspects, ranging from proposing the concept of cooperative security to developing second-track for a involving the region’s security think tanks. This paper provides an overview of Canadian security engagement with a view to assess its accomplishments and limitations.
Regarding implications for Taiwan, while highly valued as a economic partner to the developing economies of Southeast Asia, Taiwan is one of the few countries in East Asia excluded from the official framework for regional security consultations. It is against this backdrop that Taiwan is likely to consider its position on the multilateral approach favoured by Canada. Despite its exclusion, multilateralism can be beneficial to Taiwan by increasing the diplomatic and political costs of any Chinese aggression against Taiwan. To the extent that one of the clearer goals of multilateralism in the Asia Pacific today is to co-opt China into a system of regional order which constrains Beijing’s military options, it serves Taiwan’s interests. These outcomes of multilateralism do not require formal Taiwanese participation in the ARF. Taiwanese officials and analysts are hopefully aware of this fact. In this context, Canada’s security role in the Asia Pacific region may serve to enhance Taiwan’s security interests by supporting the development of norms concerning the non-use of force, and of concrete measures of military transparency, preventive diplomacy and measures for pacific settlement of disputes. It is in these areas that Canada and Taiwan can cooperate meaningfully, to a much greater extent that the situation today (when such contacts are virtually non-existent). While a Canadian role as a honest broker between China and Taiwan will not be acceptable to Beijing, there is no reason why Ottawa cannot develop separate (as well through CACAP) and regular bilateral dialogues with Taiwan and share ideas and proposal aimed at strengthening multilateralism and promoting war-avoidance in the Asia Pacific region.