About CSCAP
CSCAP is a non-governmental (second track) process for dialogue on security issues in the Asia Pacific. Membership in CSCAP is on an institutional basis and consists of Member Committees. Current membership comprises Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and the USA.
The functions of CSCAP are as follows:
- to provide an informal mechanism by which political and security issues can be discussed by scholars, officials, and others in their private capacities;
- to encourage the participation of such individuals from countries and territories in the Asia Pacific on the basis of the principle of inclusiveness;
- to organize various study groups to address security issues and challenges facing the region;
- to provide policy recommendations to various intergovernmental bodies on political-security issues;
- to convene regional and international meetings and other cooperative activities for the purpose of discussing political-security issues;
- to establish linkages with institutions and organizations in other parts of the world to exchange information, insights and experiences in the area of regional political-security cooperation; and
- to produce and disseminate publications relevant to the other purposes of the organization.
Study groups are the primary mechanism for CSCAP activity. As of March 2009, there were seven CSCAP Study Groups. These are concerned with: (i) Countering the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Asia Pacific; (ii) Export Controls; (iii) Multilateral Security Governance in the Northeast Asia/North Pacific; (iv) Naval Enhancement in the Asia Pacific; (v) Safety and Security of Offshore Oil and Gas Installations; (vi) Security Implications of Climate Change; and (vii) Transnational Organised Crime Hubs in the Asia Pacific.