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54. Is ASEAN a Security Organization?
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Chapter
- Additional Information
Is ASEAN a Security Organization? 265 By: ROS Size: 7.5" x 10.25" J/No: 03-14474 Fonts: New Baskerville 54. IS ASEAN A SECURITY ORGANIZATION? MICHAEL LEIFER Reprinted in abridged form from Michael Leifer, “The Paradox of ASEAN: A Security Organisation without the Structure of an Alliance”, The Round Table, no. 271 (July 1978), pp. 261–68. The Association of South East Asian Nations was conceived as a means of promoting intra-regional reconciliation in the wake of Indonesia’s confrontation of Malaysia. Its founders exhibited also an interest in the management of regional order. At the formation of ASEAN in August 1967, the Governments of Thailand, Malaysia , Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines committed themselves “to accelerate the economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region”. This commitment assumed greater initial prominence than the promotion of “regional peace and stability”. But the underlying concern intensified concurrently with changes in the balance of external influences bearing on South East Asia exemplified above all by the direction of American policy. In consequence, ASEAN is best contemplated as a security organization even though it does not possess the form or the structure of an alliance and its corporate activity has been devoted in the main to regional economic cooperation. This paradox is a function of the perceptions of threat held by the individual governments of the association and of other limits to the degree of cooperation between them. It is the intention of this article to explore the paradox and to explain why ASEAN cannot assume alliance form or undertake activities which are normally associated with security organizations. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BALI SUMMIT It is some indication of the limited measure of progress on the part of ASEAN that more than eight years elapsed from its advent before the heads of government of its member states deemed it appropriate to convene a common meeting. This meeting took place in February 1976 on the island of Bali in Indonesia and was prompted by the shared sense of anxiety at the radical political changes which had occurred throughout Indo-China in the preceding year. At the Bali Summit, the prime 054a AR Ch 54 22/9/03, 12:51 PM 265 266 Michael Leifer By: ROS Size: 7.5" x 10.25" J/No: 03-14474 Fonts: New Baskerville common interest of the members of the association was articulated explicitly within a joint Declaration of ASEAN Concord. The five heads of government maintained that: The stability of each member state and of the ASEAN region is an essential contribution to international peace and security. Each member state resolves to eliminate threats posed by subversion to its stability, thus strengthening national and ASEAN resilience. The significance of this statement was that it demonstrated the common perception of threat held by the five governments . Thus, although an earlier commitment by ASEAN Foreign Ministers in Kuala Lumpur in November 1971 “to secure the recognition of South-East Asia as a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality” was reaffirmed, provision for security through the exclusion of extra-regional involvement had become a secondary consideration to containing internal challenge of an ideological kind. Indeed, much of what the ASEAN states have striven to achieve in economic cooperation has been justified in terms of security. Thus, although its members have engaged in cooperative enterprise directed against protectionist practice by industrialized states, a common denominator of interest has been a desire for mutual protection on the part of conservative governments which wish to uphold the political status quo. This close link between economic and social advance and political stability in the region was enunciated in the final communiqué of the second meeting of ASEAN heads of government which convened in Kuala Lumpur in August 1977 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the formation of the association. The raison d’etre of ASEAN has been well indicated by a Yugoslav observer who has maintained that “The identity and closeness of many political and economic interests of these countries stemming from the similarity of their socio-political orders as well as their more or less outspoken hostility towards the national-liberation movements in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia provided the cohesive element and basis for their association”.1 This observation requires some qualification because from the advent of the communist governments in Indonesia , the ASEAN states ceased their “outspoken hostility” and welcomed the new administrations in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. This attempt to face up to political facts has, however, not...