Does ASEAN measure up? Post-Cold War diplomacy and the idea of regional community

Abstract

This article analyses ASEAN's security discourse and behaviour in the post-Cold War era with the goal of assessing whether ASEAN has become a diplomatic community that acts on the basis of a collective identity. The notion of community is subjected to critical analysis by measuring ASEAN's diplomacy against three criteria that are used to operationalize the concept of ‘regional collective identity’: shared meaning structures, mutual identifications and norm compliance with the ‘ASEAN way’. The article assesses ASEAN behaviour for fourteen diplomatic events in the post-Cold War period against those indicators. Do the findings support the notion of collective identity and, by extension, the idea of a regional community? The article argues that the data gained from ASEAN's post-Cold War diplomacy provide only conditional support for the idea of an ASEAN community. Exploring the foundations of ASEAN diplomacy, it suggests that ASEAN qualifies as a rule-based community but not an identity-based community. Finally, the article relates those findings to recent events in the region and outlines some implications of this study for the future trajectory of ASEAN's diplomacy. This study seeks to make a contribution to the theoretical debate about international relations in Southeast Asia as well as providing useful insights into ASEAN relations with external powers, particularly China and the United States.

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