{"id":12717,"date":"2014-03-11T12:35:24","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T01:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=12717"},"modified":"2014-03-12T08:34:23","modified_gmt":"2014-03-11T21:34:23","slug":"multilateral-disaster-relief-efforts-not-as-easy-as-you-might-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/multilateral-disaster-relief-efforts-not-as-easy-as-you-might-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Multilateral disaster relief efforts \u2013 not as easy as you might think"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n

Today marks the third anniversary of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that struck northeastern Japan, triggering a tsunami that caused widespread damage, including the meltdown of three of the six reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Only about 100 people died in the earthquake itself, (because of the earthquake-resistant design of many buildings), but almost 20,000 people lost their lives in the tsunami. It was also the most expensive disaster in human history, causing losses of $360 billion<\/a>.\u00a0As we remember Japan’s terrible losses, today\u2019s anniversary also reminds us that the Asia-Pacific is the most disaster-prone area in the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the weekend I was at a workshop in Singapore organised by the US National Bureau of Asian Research and the Japan Center for International Exchange on regional disaster management. It was part of a project to develop a US\u2013Japan alliance approach to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR), badged by the sponsors as the \u2018Strategic Assistance\u2019 concept. I was asked to give my views on the proposed concept of closer US\u2013Japan HADR operations in south and Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n

Australia has wide experience in disaster response, both at home and abroad, with significant capabilities with respect to military assets, (to be significantly expanded with the LHDs), medical facilities (such as those located at the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre <\/b>in Darwin), as well as urban search and rescue assets in Queensland and NSW. And our disaster response operations work smoothly with our aid program, as occurred with the recent Philippines Typhoon Haiyan.<\/p>\n

On the question of how Australia would likely react to combined US\u2013Japan HADR operations in the region, I suggested that we\u2019d not only welcome it, we’d want to play a contributing role. After all, both countries are close regional partners of ours. Getting civil and military responders closer together would build confidence, and both the US and Japan have significant capabilities to offer here. The AusAID merger into DFAT should see us working even closer with the US and Japan in providing disaster relief.<\/p>\n

The hard bit would be making the \u2018Strategic Assistance\u2019 concept work. Australia already has a a good working relationship with the US, with very close defence relations and no language impediments. Japan is becoming steadily more capable, but in many ways is still getting used to operating in coalitions.<\/p>\n

The first 48 hours are critical in disaster response operations and it\u2019d be much easier for us to establish connectivity with the US in that timeframe. Japan\u2019s defence and civil defence assets were largely non-interoperable following the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor challenge: as Australia puts strong emphasis on close civil\u2013military interaction in disaster response, this may also limit Japan\u2019s role.<\/p>\n

To make the Strategic Assistance concept more appealing, it\u2019d need to be a no surprises, sensibly coordinated and phased exercising approach. The concept also wouldn’t want to undercut regional mitigation efforts (as opposed to response and recovery).<\/p>\n

In advancing the concept, we\u2019d need to be mindful that there\u2019s some fatigue in military and civilian circles from the burgeoning HADR exercise and \u2018conference industry\u2019 as political masters use HADR to pursue military engagement or \u2018soften\u2019 military connections.<\/p>\n

The HADR space is now very crowded, so the Strategic Assistance concept shouldn’t reinvent wheels. For example, ASEAN centrality will be important to the countries of Southeast Asia and the already have several extant arrangements. The ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting Plus regularly holds large scale exercises. The APEC Emergency Preparedness Working Group and Senior Disaster Management Officials Forum, and the Indian Ocean Rim Association all work in the region on disaster risk reduction, management and response. They will want Japan and the US to work with them, rather than striking out on their own.<\/p>\n

China and India may be sensitive to the US\u2013Japan Strategic Assistance concept, so ideally we\u2019d want to bring them into the tent. But the more participants the harder it would be to make the concept practical. For example, one constraint may be that the PLA are designated as first responders in disasters, so bringing them in may risk them not working cooperatively with civil responders and NGOs. Australia would want a mix to include military, government relief agencies, local and international NGOs, and the private sector when conducting HADR operations.<\/p>\n

I argued that the US-Japan proposal should be embedded in the East Asia Summit construct as all 18 leaders have already signed an agreement<\/a> (PDF) to cooperate on disaster response. Maybe it could start with a \u2018trusted community\u2019 of countries such as Australia, US, New Zealand, Japan, and Singapore. Then others could join to provide particular types of assistance e.g. landing rights agreements, forensics, medical assistance and so on. Each member of the \u2018trusted community\u2019 might\u00a0want to \u2018mentor\u2019 an individual state to boost their HADR capabilities and contribute to burden sharing.<\/p>\n

Finally, one question the organisers asked me to address was how Australia would react to a combined US\u2013Japan humanitarian \u2018invasion\u2019 on our soil. I think that\u2019s quite a vexed question. Unlike New Zealand, our national crisis planning doesn\u2019t acknowledge that we might be overwhelmed by the \u2018big one\u2019 or even that \u2018black swans\u2019 like Japan\u2019s triple disaster can happen to a developed country. I think that, like other countries, we\u2019d be naturally reluctant to show we couldn\u2019t handle things, but we\u2019d also want to show we\u2019d welcome friendly offers of help. And that’s the trick in organising any multilateral HADR organisation\u2014to keep it ‘user friendly’.<\/p>\n

Anthony Bergin is deputy director of ASPI. Image courtesy of Flickr user United States Marine Corps Official Page<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today marks the third anniversary of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that struck northeastern Japan, triggering a tsunami that caused widespread damage, including the meltdown of three of the six reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":12719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[306,63,135,467,31],"class_list":["post-12717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-disaster-relief","tag-hadr","tag-japan","tag-multilateralism","tag-united-states"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMultilateral disaster relief efforts \u2013 not as easy as you might think | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/multilateral-disaster-relief-efforts-not-as-easy-as-you-might-think\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Multilateral disaster relief efforts \u2013 not as easy as you might think | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today marks the third anniversary of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake that struck northeastern Japan, triggering a tsunami that caused widespread damage, including the meltdown of three of the six reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/multilateral-disaster-relief-efforts-not-as-easy-as-you-might-think\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-03-11T01:35:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-03-11T21:34:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/5579801611_e9865cdce3_z.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"457\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anthony Bergin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anthony Bergin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/multilateral-disaster-relief-efforts-not-as-easy-as-you-might-think\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/5579801611_e9865cdce3_z.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/5579801611_e9865cdce3_z.jpg\",\"width\":640,\"height\":457,\"caption\":\"U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. 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