Keeping the peace in Southeast Asia: ASEAN and the quest for positive peace

Abstract

Southeast Asia has gone through a remarkable transformation in recent decades and seen peaceful change since the end of the Cold War era despite great power interference and rivalry and ongoing territorial disputes including the South China Sea conflict. The region has transformed its image from the so-called Balkans of the East in the 1960s and 1970s to an economically competitive and peaceful region today. Despite these accomplishments, the record of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in maintaining regional peace and security has also been seriously challenged, particularly at the domestic and transnational level. The paper argues that the Southeast Asian experience of peaceful change calls for a different framework of analysis that goes beyond the traditional International Relations theories which do not provide a compelling answer to whether regional peace has prevailed. It reviews ASEAN’s approaches to managing peace and security in Southeast Asia and brings close attention to domestic and international dynamics. The paper claims that the Southeast Asian states’ approach to positive peace, reflected in the notion of comprehensive security and the building of national and regional resilience, is instructive in understanding peaceful transformations in the region.

Keywords:

• ASEAN
• Southeast Asia
• positive peace
• comprehensive security
• resilience

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) established in 1994 has 27 members comprising the ten ASEAN states, plus its 10 dialogue partners (China, Japan, South Korea, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Russia And The European Union), North Korea, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Timor Lester, and one observer (Papua New Guinea). The EAS, established in 2005, comprise the 10 ASEAN states and 8 dialogue partners – China, Japan, South Korea, India, US, Australia, New Zealand And Russia; while the ASEAN Plus Three, established in 1999, brings together the 10 ASEAN states with China, Japan And South Korea.

2 RCEP brings together the ten ASEAN member states, China, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand into one trade agreement.

3 In ASEAN, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam are among the most vulnerable countries in the region to the impacts of climate change.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mely Caballero-Anthony

Mely Caballero-Anthony is Professor of International Relations and holds the President’s Chair for International Relations and Security Studies.  She is also Head of the Centre for Non-Traditional Security (NTS) Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

Email Address: [email protected]

Ralf Emmers

Professor Ralf Emmers is Dean of S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) and President’s Chair in International Relations, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.

Email Address: [email protected]