ASEAN and Its Security Offspring: Facing New Challenges
Abstract
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Uniting the 10 major mainland and insular Southeast Asian states, ASEAN has also established formal links to Northeast Asia (ASEAN+3), as well as to the world at large (ASEAN Regional Forum). It is appropriate at this time to take stock of ASEAN and project its future. How effectively have ASEAN and its organizational offspring functioned as a security community? Have the Association's members been able to aggregate their security interests? Have they presented a united security front to other states? Do they collaborate to resolve internal security problems and protect one another against external security challenges? In this monograph, Professor Sheldon Simon, who has written on Asian security for over 40 years, argues that ASEAN is pursuing an engagement strategy in the 21st century, bringing the great powers (the United States, China, India, Japan, and the European Union) into Southeast Asia's political and economic discussions. While these large deliberative arrangements provide regular opportunities to keep one another informed of intentions, they have been too unwieldy to effect major changes in political and economic relations. For the United States, ASEAN-dominated organizations have taken second place to Washington's bilateral ties to Southeast Asia, particularly with respect to Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. Nevertheless, ASEAN's symbolic importance to the United States was acknowledged in the summer of 2006 when both the State Department and Congress announced that Washington planned to appoint an ambassador to the association. America's future multilateral security relationships with Asia must take a more active ASEAN into account. This monograph is intended to help U.S. military and defense leaders understand the key role that Southeast Asia-centered organizations are playing in Asian security.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA472107
Entities
People
- Sheldon W. Simon
Organizations
- United States Army War College