By Morgan Potts
Has the bloc really been the force for peace in the region that some claim?
Since the formation of the Association of South East Asian Nations in 1967 with the Bangkok Declaration, there have been no major wars between its members – although there have been a number of militarized border disputes. Constructivists (Amitav Acharya premier among them, writing on the subject from 1991–present) maintain that this “lasting peace” is the result of community, and that ASEAN is therefore a security community (SC). I contend that there are more important factors than community at play that are responsible for the lack of war, and moreover that ASEAN is not as secure as it appears.
To begin, let’s define our terms. “Security” is, to be concise, the absence of violence and threat of violence. A “community,” aptly described by Acharya, is a group with a shared identity and common norms. “Security community,” a term coined by Karl Deutsch (PDF) in 1957 and best defined by him, is a group “with reasonable expectations for lasting peaceful change” – that is, the resolution of disputes by peaceful means.
Is ASEAN a security community? Both the assertion that it is secure and a community are dubious – while there has been no war, the militarized border disputes have occasionally resulted in casualties, including civilian losses. Individual member states also have tainted track records on human rights and human security, raising questions about the security of individual citizens: Thailand’s 2003 “war on drugs” witnessed the extra-judicial killing of at least 2500 alleged drug dealers (PDF); according to Human Rights Watch’s recent assessment, Burma’s human rights situation is regressing; and several ASEAN states have questionable levels of freedom of speech and assembly.
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