Corporate Security in the Asia-Pacific Region: Crisis, Crime, Fraud, and Misconduct

Corporate Security in the Asia-Pacific Region: Crisis, Crime, Fraud, and Misconduct by Christopher J. Cubbage, CPP, and David J. Brooks. CRC Press; crcpress.com; 242 pages; $79.95; also available as an e-book.

This book provides insight into the challenges of the practice of security in a region of the world that is as disjointed and independent as it is diverse. The variety of pressures faced by security practitioners is truly varied, and the authors try to pull together the region’s distinctiveness and range of security issues while also telling the story of the day-to-day reality for the security practitioner.

While it focuses on the Asia-Pacific region, the book provides commonsense advice for security practitioners anywhere in the world—with an overlay of the regional issues, history, statistics, and trends—addressing security topics that are common concerns in the corporate environment. Some interesting comparisons and trends are included in the text, particularly as they relate to the Asia-Pacific region’s differentiation relative to European or American regions. These comparisons can help security practitioners from other areas of the world get a sense of underlying problems that may be well-entrenched issues in this region.

Australasia has developed a well-established and robust security risk-management environment, and the book’s authors—with their strong ties to the Australasian security community—do not disappoint. They guide readers with practical and effective risk management advice to help the professional tease out priorities. The guidance provided can help create a better understanding of how to apply these sound principles to their enterprises in an effective manner.

The vast and varied threats that are emerging in this region are difficult to pull together in one book, and at times it is evident that the region’s lack of cohesiveness, coupled with the great variety of cultures, makes it a difficult subject to wrap up in a tidy manner.

The latter part of the book seems somewhat fragmented and lacks a narrative, as it is simply a collection of examples of fraud and misconduct from this and other regions of the world followed by a listed synopsis of each nation-state.

Overall it is the breadth of topics that the authors have at their disposal from this vast region of the world that makes this a valuable book for corporate security libraries anywhere in the world. Security professionals in the Asia-Pacific region will see many trends and issues that they are all too familiar with, and security professionals in other areas of the world will also enjoy comparing and contrasting the book’s examples with their own experiences.

Reviewer: Susan Gallagher is director of Susan Gallagher Consulting Ltd. in Canada and New Zealand and an independent specialist in security management for the government and private sector. She is a member of ASIS International.