Understanding ASEAN's centrality: bases and prospects in an evolving regional architecture

Abstract

There have been a number of articles about ASEAN's centrality in the regional security architecture of Asia. Yet, the notion of centrality remains undefined and under-operationalised. Implicit in the discourses of centrality is the idea of ASEAN's leadership, which in turn raises questions about ASEAN's ability to do so, given its limited capacity. This article defines ASEAN's centrality from the perspective of social network approach and argues that ASEAN's structural position in the density of networks that it has established and those that it has linkages with explains ASEAN's centrality. Despite its lack of material power, ASEAN has been able to claim centrality because of its position as a node in a cluster of networks, and this condition of ‘high betweenness’ allows ASEAN to exercise influence in regional processes with the tacit acceptance of major powers. However, while centrality may have been achieved, maintaining centrality in a rapidly changing regional environment compels ASEAN to address challenges to its centrality. This would necessarily include its ability to maintain consensus, carry out collective action and achieve its stated goals.

Keywords:

• centrality
• regional architecture
• ASEAN Community
• ASEAN Political–Security Community

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Diane Stone for her very helpful comments to the original draft. The author is also grateful for the comments of the anonymous reviewer for The Pacific Review.

Notes

1. Since its founding in 1994, the ARF has grown from the original 21 member states (which include the 10 ASEAN states) to 27 countries. Its geographic footprint has extended beyond Asia to North America, Europe and the Pacific.

2. In SNA, nodes can either be individual states or corporate actors such as organisations (Hafner-Burton, Kahler and Montgomery 2009, 562).

3. In the economic sphere, aside from the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA), which came into force in 2002, efforts are also underway to realise the East Asia Free Trade Agreement (EAFTA), which will bring together the 10 ASEAN states with Japan, China and South Korea. There are also plans to establish the Comprehensive Economic Partnership in East Asia (CEPEA), which will extend the membership of the 10 ASEAN members with Japan, China and South Korea to include India, Australia and New Zealand.

4. See Article 2 of the ASEAN Charter.

5. At the 21st ASEAN Summit, the idea of establishing a bigger economic grouping called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was announced. The objective of the RCEP is to form one of the world's largest free trade bloc comprising the ASEAN 10 and six countries that have FTAs with ASEAN – China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mely Caballero-Anthony

Mely Caballero-Anthony is Associate Professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, and served as Director of External Relations of the ASEAN Secretariat (2011–2012).