Arms Proliferation Issues in ASEAN: Towards a More “Conventional” Defence Posture?

Abstract

The armed forces of the ASEAN countries have embarked upon a major drive to modernize their air and naval capabilities. But does this reflect a shift in emphasis from internal security operations to conventional warfare? This paper finds that the air and naval forces of four ASEAN countries are moving beyond internal secur ity and coastal defence roles. A number of factors have affected this transition, especially the declining credibility of the Western strategic umbrella in the region, and the emergence of new security concerns, including the protection of maritime economic zones that are increasingly vital to the ASEAN countries. These con cerns might have contributed more than just the perceptions of a conventional external military threat to the apparent shift in the defence posture of the ASEAN countries. Even a most casual overview of recent trends in the force structures and equipment of the armed forces of the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) shows a move towards significant expansion and modernization. While the defence spending and arms pro curement budgets of the ASEAN countries are at a lower level compared to many states in other volatile Third World regions, especially the Middle East and South Asia,1 the ASEAN trends are important in the context of the historical dependence of these countries on Western security commit ments and the hitherto essentially internal security orientation of their armed forces. To be sure, the regional armed forces retain their traditional missions and roles. The Army is still the dominant service in those states where it has engineered internal political change, and counter-insurgency