Improving economic growth and building security : the role of ASEAN in the Southeast Asian region

Abstract

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formed in 1967 with the main aims of improving economic growth, social progress and cultural development as well as promoting regional peace and stability and active collaboration on matters of common interest (Bangkok Declaration, 1967). Military cooperation was originally excluded by the objectives of the ASEAN regional integration process and, in the context of the Cold War, the military defence of the region was provided by a wide set of bilateral and multilateral agreements, which had their centrepiece in the US-led “hub and spoke” system counterbalanced by the Soviet Union and the oscillating role of China. Nevertheless, when ASEAN was born, security issues were largely in the minds of its founders and since the Seventies under the rubric of regional peace and stability security matters entered the ASEAN agenda. Consequently, though ASEAN was neither born as a military organization, nor as a unitary actor, through its policies aimed at increasing economic growth and the development of a wide set of norms, principles and rules in the field of conflict avoidance and prevention, the Association has had an impact on regional cooperation and security, creating the proper conditions to turn conflictive relations into cooperative behaviours. Furthermore, in the context of ASEAN, frequent meetings at a formal and informal level, high level visits and workshops have encouraged those “habits of working together” or simple “habits of dialogue”, which gradually facilitated interactions, improving regional stability and mechanisms for conflict mitigation, despite the highly heterogeneity of ASEAN member states.