ABSTRACT
By the turn of the millennium, a complicated mix of regional events and global uncertainties had significantly challenged the modus operandi, values and prestige of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Consequently, a growing proportion of the region’s political elite came to accept that the pursuit of security, stability and economic development would require greater political cooperation and integration between the ASEAN members. For the more democratic states, this realization impelled a growing sense of urgency regarding the need to transform the underlying values and norms of the Association and, in the process, deepen the level of supranational institutionalization currently extant. Negotiations subsequently culminated in an ASEAN Charter as well as a formal proposal to establish an integrated ‘security community’, ‘economic community’ and ‘socio-cultural community’. While key components in these institutional blueprints have emulated constructivist ideas, the specific proposal for a security community reflects more than half a century of scholarly work on the subject. As a security community can only exist where armed conflict between the members would no longer be foreseeable, the realization of ASEAN’s goals would result in a level of cooperation and international integration akin to the European Union (EU). Given the political, economic and ethno-religious diversity of Southeast Asia, such institutionalized regionalism will be no easy feat.
