Publication

This paper analyzes the impact of international counterterrorist policies on the protection of human rights in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia. The first section analyzes the promotion of human rights in the region throughout the 1990s. The second section looks at the changes induced by the September 11 attacks with regard to US foreign policy toward the Pacific region and the internal policies of Southeast Asian countries. The third section provides a deeper study of Malaysia and Indonesia. In his conclusion the author summarizes the main lessons of the analysis and discusses different scenarios for the next five years. He concludes that the evolution of the trend toward the marginalization of human rights and democracy in Southeast Asia will primarily depend on the interactions between a limited set of factors: the foreign policy priorities of the US, the EU, Japan, and other international actors; the evolution of ASEAN and other regional structures; the discovery of new links between regional terrorist organizations and international networks, such as al-Qaida; and the interaction between Southeast Asian political leaders and civil societies.