CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2011
| Author | Thompson, Ian Markham |
|---|---|
| Title | Why Hasn't ASEAN Constructed A Firm Security Structure? Regional Integration Dilemmas in Southeast Asia and Factors Contributing to a Lack of Security Community in the ASEAN Organization |
| Summary | Since its inception in 1967, the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has attempted to create a regional organization aimed at economic, political, and security cooperation. In a contemporary world constructed by the trends of regionalism, organizations such as the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA) and the European Union (EU) have come to epitomize the most advanced versions of supranational, regional actors. Although NAFTA and the EU have influenced the creation and adoption of particular institutional norms that have lead to more formalized structures of regional cooperation, ASEAN still lacks some fundamental aspects of regulation and reform that would effectively allow it to increase its functional ability. The impact of norm diffusion, regional styles of governments, and institutional implementations have hurt ASEAN in many sectors, especially in regard to security. One of the most pronounced difficulties that ASEAN has includes its lacking of a bona-fied security community which possesses the stability of comparable regional organizations or supranational bodies. ASEAN's desire to achieve a pluralistic security community standard has not gone unnoticed, formal announcement on the official agenda have highlighted this concern. A plethora of institutional implementations that include inter-regional dialogue have also increased the attractiveness of such an option. The non-interference doctrine, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) are just a few examples of institutional 'talk shops' that have encouraged inter-regional discourse throughout the region. Regardless, there are many weak aspects of these institutions, and coupled with other historical and social factors they have proven detrimental to the concept of an ASEAN security community, rendering ASEAN partially impotent in its capabilities to discourage regional conflict, crime and tension. |
| Supervisor | Kim, Youngmi |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2011/thompson_ian.pdf |
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