Association of Southeast Asian Nations

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was founded in 1967. Founding members were Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Brunei joined in 1984, Vietnam in 1995, Laos and Myanmar (Burma) in 1997, and Cambodia in 1999. Though not a military alliance, ASEAN is best characterized as a political-security organization [Page 35]focused on regional stability-mitigating intra-regional tensions, self-strengthening, and preventing foreign intervention or interference. Early efforts at trade and industrial cooperation were limited, but intra-ASEAN trade liberalization efforts have intensified since the late 1980s.

ASEAN has been distinguished by its quiet diplomacy and informal institutionalism, especially its avoidance of binding agreements, the relative absence of conflict resolution mechanisms, and its preference for consensual decision-making processes. ASEAN's informalism is related to its norm of noninterference, considered one of ASEAN's defining norms and certainly an early point of agreement among members. These norms and practices are often characterized as the “ASEAN way.”

As exemplified by the works of Michael Leifer, early scholarship has tended toward realist themes—the influence of great powers and great power conflict on regional processes and narrowly conceived national interests as the explanation for ASEAN's informal institutionalism. Realist explanations have been challenged by constructivist accounts that focus on the normative foundations of regional order and the role of ideas, culture, and process in shaping ASEAN's institutional and security practices. ASEAN's security community status has been a particular preoccupation of constructivists like Amitav Acharya.

In debates about regionalism, ASEAN contrasts with the legalistic, formal institutionalism associated with regional arrangements in Western Europe and North America. ASEAN's informalism, which also characterizes wider regional arrangements (e.g., Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation [APEC] and the ASEAN Regional Forum), has also been a source of tension between ASEAN states and other actors, especially the United States. These tensions have generated contrasts between the process-driven ASEAN way and the results-oriented American way.

Noninterference has received particular attention and recent criticism for limiting the organization's efficacy in managing regional affairs and for sheltering member governments from scrutiny. Troubles regarding the political instability and human rights situation of new members (Cambodia and Myanmar), domestic changes (democratization, the rising influence of societal and transnational groups, globalization) in the politics of old members, as well as a series of crises (most notably the 1997–1998 Asian financial crisis) have strained ASEAN's state-centric regionalism. These problems have also contributed to the development of “Track III” processes involving societal groups (domestic and transnational) that parallel more established “Track I” (formal or official) and “Track II” (academics and think tanks) processes. Questions, however, remain about how much societal groups will be able to penetrate the formal decision-making process.