“It was interesting when Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar in terms of ASEAN’s
role. Myanmar enforced strict national security policy in order to allow the
external forces to get into a country for assistance operations. Neither the
United Nations nor ASEAN was trusted when discussing join assistance
operations. Thailand, instead, played a significant role in persuading and
convincing Myanmar to accept assistance from other nation-states and
international organizations. Bilateral relationships and trust are the most
important to coordinate on-the-ground operations. Evidently, mutual
agreement and familiar operations between two nations were crucial in
collaborative operations across jurisdictions in the Typhoon Haiyan disaster.
The United States’ forces were deployed quickly when the potential of
strong typhoon was advised and when emergency response was needed.”
(ERAT personnel, Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation,
Thailand, Interviewed on May 22, 2014)