The Contribution of Track Two Dialogue towards Crisis Prevention

Abstract

The emergence of many think tanks and security-related track two processes in the Asia-Pacific during the last two decades has given rise to speculation about their contribution to the peaceful resolution of disputes and the search for strategies to address the manyfold nontraditional security threats caused by globalization and growing interdependencies. After placing track two dialogues in an basically institutionalist theoretical framework, the article briefly sketches the genesis and development of track two processes since the early 1980s. It then goes on to argue that security-related track two processes represent an innovative response to the region 's security problems and helped to shape an Asian security identity. However, track two dialogues are far from being a panacea. They are plagued by a number of flaws such as their great proximity to government, lack of independence, a traditional, state-centric approach to international relations which is strongly informed by the realist paradigma and a certain degree of exclusiveness.