Security Co-operation in Southeast Asia: An Evolving Process

In biological terms evolution is ‘widely regarded as a progressive force thrusting inexorably towards … improvement’, although there are the qualifications that it is not automatically ‘progressive’ and that the time-scale can be very considerable. ¹ These qualifications are pertinent in terms of a discussion of security co-operation as an evolving process. In terms of security co-operation between states, evolution as a progressive force can be identified with the establishment of a security ‘regime’ (in which states would seek to restrain their behaviour in order to lessen the effects of the ‘security dilemma’) and, ultimately, of a security ‘community’ (where states would obviate the security dilemma through a process of integration leading to a reliance on ‘peaceful change’). ² Thus security co-operation should, perhaps, be seen more in terms of the creation of a sustainable regional order and of conflict resolution than in military co-operation. In Southeast Asia, even the members of ASEAN, ³ do not currently form more than a limited security regime, let alone a community. Despite the Association displaying some aspects of community (for example, its members’ existing and growing economic ties), the fact that certain members still ‘target each other with their armed forces’ means that ASEAN fails the ‘defining test’ of the existence of a security community. ⁴ This is particularly evident in the case of Malaysia and Singapore. ⁵ There are simultaneously, however, elements of bilateral and trilateral military co-operation between various members.