ASEAN´s Prospective Security Role: Moving Beyond the Indochina Fixation

Abstract

its earliest days, and to discern the various dimensions of this endeavour, but also to attempt to broaden the debate concerning the Association's future security role. ASEAN was not the first attempt at international co-operation within Southeast Asia, but it has certainly been the most successful. In the early 1960s, the ASA (Association of Southeast Asia, linking the Malayan Federation, the Philippines and Thailand) failed to become an effective organization because of its limited membership and prestige, especially in terms of Indonesia's absence. MAPHILINDO, announced in mid-1963, included Indonesia together with Malaysia and the Philippines, but was quickly thwarted as a device for regional co-operation by the almost simultaneous onset of Sukarno's policy of Konfrontasi (Confronta tion) against Malaysia. The emergence of Suharto's New Order in Indonesia in 1966 enabled a detente between Jakarta and Kuala Lumpur: this situation of reduced intra-regional tension was a vital permissive factor facilitating the formation of a new regional grouping. A more positive impetus for the inception of ASEAN sprang from the prevailing turbulence elsewhere in the region: the conflict in Indochina was turning Southeast Asia into a cockpit of great power rivalry. At the same time, the end of the regional British military presence could be seen not far ahead, with impor tant implications for the security of Malaysia and the now sovereign city-state of Singapore. There were strong incentives for a fresh attempt at formalized regional co-operation. Although economic, social and cultural co-operation were stressed as the central objectives of ASEAN, from the beginning the Association also represented a political entente between non- (indeed, anti-) communist states in a region clearly threatened by communist-led revolutionary pressures, from both within and without. The specific political motives of the five ASEAN states in joining the organization nevertheless varied widely. Thai Foreign Minister Thanat Khoman hoped that ASEAN would become an organ for the collective political defence of the region, so that for Bangkok a policy of regional co-operation could sup plement, and eventually replace, its alliance with the United States. Indonesia