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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2015
Used in both security and economic discourse in the region. In the security discourse, transparency is associated with confidence and security-building measures. Transparency assumes that openness on military matters encourages trust between states and reduces the suspicions that can lead to miscalculation and conflict. It does not require openness on all defence matters but rather limited and carefully defined openness about a particular set of military issues.
Transparency works primarily by reassuring states that other governments to do not intend to take military action against them. It can also assure states that potential adversaries do not have the capability to launch a major assault against them without taking obvious preparations. While a state's intentions can obviously change over time, its military capability can only be expanded by a programme of acquisitions over a long period. If transparency is pursued consistently across an entire region, it therefore becomes difficult for any one state to acquire the capacity to launch an unexpected attack. Desmond Ball has identified transparency as one of the “first and most basic” building blocks for creating confidence in the Asia-Pacific region.
Practically there are many different ways to work towards transparency. These include military-to-military contacts, visits by military delegations, prior notification of military exercises, and the sharing of strategic perceptions, military doctrine, and force structures, right through to the actual physical inspection of military installations. In the Asia-Pacific, intrusive measures such as inspections are unacceptable to many states. More attention has, therefore, been placed on exchanges of information such as encouraging the publication of White Papers by regional governments. One second-track proposal has called for the publication of a “generic” Defence White Paper by all the states in the region. Another specific transparency measure that has been proposed is the creation of a regional register of arms transfers. While no agreement on this suggestion has yet been possible, regional states have undertaken to actively support the United Nations' Register of Arms Transfers.
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