The ASEAN Regional Security Partnership: Strengths and Limits of a Cooperative System by Angela Pennisi di Floristella (review)

In The ASEAN Regional Security Partnership: Strengths and Limits of a Cooperative System, Angela Pennisi di Floristella contributes to the theoretical discussion of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by introducing and developing the concept of ASEAN as a “regional security partnership” (RSP). Floristella contrasts the RSP approach to the conventional theoretical approaches most often used to analyse ASEAN: realism (and varieties thereof) and constructivism. Realism, especially its neorealist variant, dismisses ASEAN as largely irrelevant, while constructivism focuses on ASEAN as the focal point of a regional effort to build a Southeast Asian identity that is in the process of altering how regional states interact.

RSP theory is a kind of institutionalism, derived from neoliberal institutionalism. RSPs are a form of cooperative security building, but they do not rise to the level of security communities. RSP theory acknowledges the importance of interests and power in shaping state action but rejects the idea of conflict as a permanent condition of the system. It asserts that multilateral cooperation is possible; indeed, states tend towards cooperation. States have an interest in developing regional cooperative institutions through which to regulate crises and manage common problems. They develop a sense of their interdependence and understand the advantages of a common response to transnational problems. Over time, states can develop a “flexible understanding of security” (p. 7). Floristella notes the similarities between the RSP approach and constructivism, but there are significant differences. RSP emphasizes norms as regulators of state action, whereas constructivism — at least as usually applied to Southeast Asia — focuses on norms as instruments of identity-building. The RSP does not require a strong sense of collective identity to explain state action, which fits well with the reality of Southeast Asia.

Floristella tests the theory by evaluating ASEAN’s incremental approach to building cooperative security. She examines how well the organization performs the tasks of prevention (Chapter 3), protection (Chapter 4) and assurance (Chapter 5). She provides an excellent and detailed overview of ASEAN’s various efforts in these areas, including (among others) examinations of its role in managing the South China Sea dispute with China, the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia over the Preah Vihear Temple, ASEAN’s efforts to coordinate counterterrorism and disaster response, and its various confidence-building measures.

Floristella initially seems fairly optimistic about ASEAN’s ability to effectively address at least some of these issues. Along the way, she sometimes seems to overlook some significant evidence to the contrary. For example, her brief discussion of ASEAN’s human rights initiatives does not mention the failure of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) to address Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya people. Her account of ASEAN’s handling of Preah Vihear is too willing to overlook the many ways in which that incident demonstrated serious weaknesses in the commitment of some ASEAN states to the organization’s integrity. She discusses China’s role in the region in mostly positive, liberal terms, noting that the extensive economic interaction between China and ASEAN can be expected to alleviate regional tensions, though she later does note the capacity for China and the United States to pull ASEAN apart. She does not address the obvious failure of ASEAN’s efforts to deal with the “regional haze” that chokes Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore on a regular basis.

In the end, however, Floristella’s analysis ends up in the same spot as numerous other analyses of ASEAN: the organization remains handicapped in its development by the continuing commitment of most of its members to Westphalian state sovereignty and the norm of non-intervention. Most of the ASEAN initiatives the book examines suffer from the same limitation: while they may look good on paper and they may even indicate ASEAN’s aspiration to effectively address shared regional and transnational problems, Floristella’s analysis indicates that they have mostly been untried or proven less...