ASEAN Concord II: Policy Prospects for Participant Regional "Development"

With the ASEAN Concord II in late 2003, Southeast Asia charted an ambitious path towards creating a Community founded on economic, security and socio-cultural "pillars". But the ASEAN agenda remains highly voluntaristic, though there has been some progress in shaping an ASEAN Economic Community agenda, in part driven by strong Singaporean and Thai interests. This apparent "policy gap" can be viewed as a strategic ambiguity that will allow member states to engage in the Community at their own level of capability, either via a two-tier approach of differential integration or via a notion of creative exemption. Current debates on human security and the meaning of development are two related areas which could be utilized to strengthen the ASEAN dynamic. A genuinely inclusive developmental strategy that would create a sustainable ASEAN socio-cultural community, backed by extended models of economic regionalism and a comprehensive security order, have yet to be devised. These are the missing foundations of ASEAN's Concord II. Nevertheless, the lengthy period for implementation of Concord II as a whole (2020) indicates a realistic assessment of the challenges involved.