CIAO DATE: 06/2014
May 2014
S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies
"Hotline" communication channels or Direct Communication Links (DCLs) have the potential to serve limited but important crisis management and confidence-building functions in East Asia's increasingly tense maritime security environment. Their primary purpose is to provide a secure communications channel between national command authorities for clarifying intentions in near real time in order to prevent unintended military conflict, especially where territory is actively in dispute. This has clear policy relevance given East Asia's maritime geography, the existence of overlapping sovereignty and boundary claims, and the rising tide of incidents at sea and in the airspace above. This pertains not only to armed forces but extends to paramilitary and civilian law enforcement vessels and aircraft. While the patchy record of hotline utilisation across East Asia suggests that they are of questionable effectiveness in a crisis, policy interest in hotlines within the Association of Southeast Asian nations (ASEAN) and between China and its maritime neighbours is growing.
Resource link: Maritime Hotlines in East Asia [PDF] - 4.9M