EVOLUTION OF ASEAN: TOWARDS THE ASEAN POLITICAL SECURITY COMMUNITY

Abstract

Definition and components of ASEAN Political Security Community, which are defined by governments of ASEAN’s member states, differ from definition and components of “Security Community” which are defined by scholars in International Relations. This study finds that the roles of ASEAN in Southeast Asian Politics and Security are dynamic which related to the changing of international environment and the evolution of ASEAN Political and Security Cooperation in each period.  The results of this study show that cooperation of the ASEAN’s member states has been perfectly developed to the first tier or nascent tier as indicated in the conceptual framework which developed from the security community theory of Amitav Acharya. Because there are shared threat perceptions, expectations of mutual trade benefits, and some degree of shared identity. There is slightly military coordination and regulation standardization among ASEAN’s members, so ASEAN cooperation has been partly developed up to the second tier or ascendant tier as indicated in the security community theory.  Besides, ASEAN cooperation has been partly developed up to the third tier or mature tier as indicated in the security community theory because there is institutionalization in ASEAN. However, ASEAN is not a mature security community because it lack supranationalism and high degree of trust among member states. Moreover, there is a high probability of military conflict.