ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the problems, possibilities and dynamics of international cooperation in regional security, using the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a case study. The lure of international cooperation, in particular the international dimension of cooperative security, is hard to resist in the post-Cold War era. The term ‘regional security’ is often taken to include a general environment of peace, stability and predictability resulting from a process of understanding or compromise between states in a defined geographic area. Virtually all Western states have achieved, in the words of Mohammed Ayoob, a state of ‘unconditional legitimacy’. The history of the ASEAN non-interference principle in practice is marked more by realpolitik rather than any notion of morality. The importance of the non-interference principle has not diminished with time, and its relevance remains central. New approaches of assessing arms acquisitions and build-ups will be less abrasive than the usual structured, rules-based, and imposed form of arms control.
