Critics on ASEAN Political Security Community

1.) Wang Gungwu

- Professor Wang, in his essay believes that Southeast Asian nations should find its way
into shaping it to ASEAN.
- Colonialism, Cold War - helped the founding member states aspirations for a neutral
and autonomous regional community
- Cons: Big power competition between China and India (these two countries are bound
to figure in ASEAN’s future)
- Proposed Action: SEA shall manage to defend its autonomy against the machinations of
more powerful states will depend on ASEAN success in building a political-security
community)

2.) Amitav Acharya

- He tackled the “shared identity is key to building a community”
- Emphasised that “shared identity” is important and that it also has five major sources of
ASEAN identity:
a.) Nationalism
b.) Religion
c.) Cultural norms and modes of interaction
d.) A modernist developmental state orientation and approach, and
e.) Regionalism
- Factors that contribute to the decline of regional identity
a.) Globalisation
b.) Membership expansion
c.) Alternative conceptions of regionalism driven by market integration
d.) Intramural differences within ASEAN over the basic norms of sovereignty and non-
interference in dealing with transnational issues.

Proposed action: ASEAN’s identity shall stand to these two foundations:

a.) First strong internal support base to open to participation by civil society and non-
state actors so that regional identity will belong to the people and not only to the
state elites.
b.) Second, is a continuing posture of neutrality with respect to big power rivalries,
which has made ASEAN a more effective partner for all powers than it otherwise
would have been
3.) Simon Tay
- He posits that AESAN needs to be more agenda-setter rather that a convener, action-
oriented rather than dialogue-based, and non-aligned but actively engaged
 - ASEAN should speak with greater coherence to have a more persuasive voice on the
global stage

4.) Tan See Seng

-High council of ASEAN
-Member-states prefer to take their own-intra ASEAN territorial disputes and sovereignty
disputes to the international bodies such as the International Court of Justice rather than rely on
regional solutions.
-It has new provisions on dispute settlement; it upholds the preponderant role of leaders rather
than of rules and organs in decision-making

Traditional and Non-Traditional Security Threats