Abstract
This chapter describes how ASEAN member states’ mechanisms of decision-making have developed since the regional grouping’s inception. It details how concepts of confidence-building measures (CBMs) have given rise to contradictions within negotiation mechanisms developed to address the South China Sea disputes. It also recounts the historical process behind the creation of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional negotiation structure and shows the internal constraints and the nature of the problems the group faces as it seeks to progress from CBMs to preventive diplomacy (PD). Since its inception, the negotiating dynamic related to the South China Sea has experienced friction between states seeking a way to accommodate all interests and those motivated by individual gains. The first group includes the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and Track II negotiation forums like the Indonesia Workshop, while the second includes more assertive states such as China.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Within this conceptualization, even the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA), despite its essentially economic character, can be considered a positive element in the construction of mutual trust between China and ASEAN. It took almost 10 years to develop. It promotes an intense exchange of information and imposes a new sophisticated level of communications during the negotiation process. It was signed in 2002 and implemented in 2010, and was upgraded in 2014.
- 2.
The Declaration contains potential CBMs including: holding dialogues and exchange of views between military officials; ensuring just and humane treatment of all persons in danger or distress; and notifying, on a voluntary basis, other concerned parties of any impending joint/combined military exercises in the Spratly/SCS region (Song 2005, p. 273).
- 3.
For more information about the 1975 CSCE, and the organization that derived from it, please see: Organization for Security Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)—available at: http://www.osce.org/who/87 Access: September 16, 2016.
- 4.
The ASEAN PMC usually follows the Annual ASEAN Ministerial Meetings (AMM) among ASEAN foreign ministers. These meetings provide ASEAN foreign ministers with an opportunity to meet their counterparts from dialogue partners’ countries. During the early 1990s, the PMCs provided a venue for ASEAN states to discuss security concerns, until the establishment of the ASEAN Regional Forum in 1994 (Anthony-Caballero 2005, p. 56).
- 5.
It is interesting note that the acronym “ASEAN” was used rather than “Asian,” to reflect the leadership and prominence that ASEAN wanted to develop within the nascent forum, according to Caballero-Anthony (2005).
- 6.
It is composed of Australia, Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia , Canada , China, the European Union, India , Indonesia , Japan, the Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea, Laos, Malaysia , Myanmar, Mongolia , New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea , the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand , East Timor, the United States, and Vietnam.
- 7.
From 2010 to 2016, information is not available (List of ARF Track I Activities 2016).
- 8.
Namely Australia, Canada , Indonesia , Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States .
- 9.
The CSCAP currently has seven working groups: (1) Transnational Crimes Responsibility to Protect; (2) Study Group on Naval Enhancement in the Asia Pacific; (3) Study Group on Safety and Security of Offshore Oil and Gas Installations; (4) Study Group on the Establishment of Regional Transnational Organized Crime Hubs in the Asia Pacific; (5) Study Group on Countering the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the Asia Pacific; (6) Export Controls Experts Group (XCXG), a sub group of the Study Group on WMD, and; (7) Study Group on Multilateral Security Governance in Northeast Asia/North Pacific.
- 10.
These workshops were held in different places, including Bali, Bandung, Manila , Hanoi, and Hainan. They were composed of several thematic working groups, such as the Technical Working Group (TWG), Group of Experts Meeting (GEM), Marine Scientific Research (MSR), Marine Environmental Protection (MEP), Legal Matters (LM), Education and Training of Mariners (ETM), Safety of Navigation, Shipping and Communications (SNSC), and others (See Song 2005, p. 273).
- 11.
A good example of this controversy was Michael Lund’s (1995) article Underrating Preventive Diplomacy, a response to Professor Stephen Stedman’s (1995) piece titled Alchemy for a New World Order: Overselling Preventive Diplomacy, both of which were published by the Council on Foreign Relations publication Foreign Affairs.
- 12.
Ralf Emmers argues that SCS claimants have been inflexible in their positions on sovereignty. Any compromise, such as retracting the territorial claims or eventual concessions on the question of sovereign jurisdiction “would be costly domestically and perceived regionally as a sign of weakness” (Emmers 2007, p. 49).
- 13.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a regional economic forum established in 1989 aiming to respond to the increasingly interdependence of the Asia-Pacific economies. Currently APEC is composed by 21 members and has its headquarters located in Singapore.
- 14.
By the time of the ARF’s creation in 1994, Southeast Asia had already experienced a series of clashes and quarrels between claimants’ coast guard forces . However, it is important to highlight that the conflicts had existed since 1976, when China launched a war on Vietnam that resulted in the Chinese seizure of Paracel Islands from Hanoi. Later, in 1988, the two countries had another clash: Chinese and Vietnamese navies clashed at Johnson Reef in the Spratly Islands. Several Vietnamese boats were sunk and over 70 sailors killed. Therefore, the concept of the China Threat is real and concrete for all the states in the region. See the Global Security Organization website for a complete profile of these episodes: http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/spratly-clash.htm.
- 15.
It was inside of the workshops that relations between China and Malaysia improved significantly, from a bilateral point of view. In 2010, despite a refusal by the Malaysian authorities, Beijing offered Malaysia certain financial rights and cooperation treaties concerning gas and oil exploration (Swanström 1999).
References
Abuza, Zachary. “Analyzing Southeast Asia’s Military Expenditures.” CogitASIA—CSIS Asia Policy Blog. Last modified May 7, 2015. http://cogitasia.com/analyzing-southeast-asias-military-expenditures/.
Acharya, Amitav. The ASEAN Regional Forum: Confidence Building. Ottawa: Dept. of Foreign Affairs and International Trade—Verification Research Program, 1997. http://www.amitavacharya.com/sites/default/files/ASEAN%20Regional%20Forum-Confidence%20Building.pdf. Accessed February 7, 2017.
“An Agenda for Peace: Preventive Diplomacy, Peacemaking and Peacekeeping.” Foreign Policy Bulletin 3, no. 02 (1992), 32–42. doi:10.1017/s1052703 600004159.
ARF. “About Us.” ASEAN Regional Forum. http://www.aseanregionalforum.org/AboutUs/tabid/57/Default.aspx. Accessed September 19, 2016.
ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF). “Chairman’s Statement: The Second ASEAN Regional Forum Ministerial Meeting, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam.” Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. Last modified August 1, 1995. https://2001-2009.state.gov/t/ac/csbm/rd/4376.htm.
ASEAN. ARF Annual Security Outlook 2009. Bangkok, Thailand: Association of Southeast Asian Nations, 2009. https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/43368421/arf-annual-security-outlook-2009pdf-asean-regional-forum. Accessed February 7, 2017.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia Indonesia, 24 February 1976.” ASEAN. Last modified February 24, 1976. http://asean.org/treaty-amity-cooperation-southeast-asia-indonesia-24-february-1976/. Accessed February 9, 2017.
Caballero-Anthony, Mely. Regional Security in Southeast Asia: Beyond the ASEAN Way. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2005.
Caballero-Anthony, Mely. Regional Security in Southeast Asia: Beyond the ASEAN Way. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2005.
Capie, David H. “Globalization, Norms, and Sovereignty: ASEAN’s Changing Identity and Its Implications for Development.” In Development and Security in Southeast Asia. Vol I: The Environment, edited by David B. Dewitt and Carolina G. Hernandez, 87–114. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Group, 2003.
Capie, David H., and Paul M. Evans. The Asia-Pacific Security Lexicon. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2007.
Connor, Neil. “China Claims Victory as ASEAN Countries Issue Watered Down Statement on South China Sea.” The Telegraph (London), July 25, 2016. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/25/china-claims-victory-as-asean-countries-issue-watered-down-state/. Accessed February 9, 2017.
Cossa, Ralph A. Asia Pacific Confidence and Security Building Measures. Washington, DC: Westview Press, 1995.
Council for Security Cooperation in Asia Pacific. “The Kuala Lumpur Statement 8 June 1993 Establishment of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific.” CSCAP. http://www.cscap.org/index.php?page=the-kuala-lumpur-statement. Accessed February 8, 2017.
Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP). “About Us.” CSCAP. http://www.cscap.org/index.php?page=about-us. Accessed February 7, 2017.
Djalal, Hasjim, and Ian Townsend-Gault. “Managing Potential Conflicts in the South China Sea: Informal Diplomacy for Conflict Prevention.” In Herding Cats: Multiparty Mediation in a Complex World, edited by Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela R. Aall, 107–34. Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace Press, 1999.
Emmers, Ralf. “Maritime Disputes in the South China Sea:Strategic and Diplomatic Status Quo.” In Maritime Security in Southeast Asia, edited by Chong Guan Kwa and John Kristen Skogan, 49–61. London: Routledge, 2007.
Emmers, Ralph. “The ASEAN Regional Forum and Preventive Diplomacy: A failure in Practice.” RSIS Working Paper, no. 189 (December 2009).
Evans, Paul M. “Building Security: The Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP).” The Pacific Review 7, no. 2 (1994), 125–139.
Global Security Organization. “Military Clashes in the South China Sea.” GlobalSecurity.org. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/spratly-clash.htm. Accessed February 7, 2017.
Joint Communique of The 49th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting, 24 July 2016. Ventiane: ASEAN, 2016. https://www.asean2016.gov.la/kcfinder/upload/files/Joint%20Communique%20of%20the%2049th%20AMM%20(ADOPTED).pdf. Accessed February 7, 2017.
Joyner, Christopher C. “The Spratly Dispute in the South China Sea: Problems, Policies, and Prospects for Diplomatic Accommodation.” In Investigating Confidence-Building Measures in the Asia-Pacific Region, edited by Ranjeet K Singh, 53–109. Washington, D.C.: Henry L. Stimson Center, 1999.
Kawamura, Koichi. “Consensus and Democracy in Indonesia: Musyawarah-Mufakat Revisited.” IDE Discussion Paper, no. 308 (September 2011). doi:10.2139/ssrn.2280935.
Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone: (Adopted at the 24th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Seventh National People’s Congress on February 25, 1992, Promulgated by Order No. 55 of the President of the People’s Republic of China on February 25, 1992, and Effective as of the Date of Promulgation. [S.l.]: [s.n.], 1997. http://www.un.org/depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/PDFFILES/CHN_1992_Law.pdf. Accessed February 7, 2017.
List of ARF Track I Activities. Bangkok: ASEAN Regional Forum. http://aseanregionalforum.asean.org/library/arf-activities.html?id=52. Accessed September 19, 2016.
Lund, Michael S. “Underrating Preventive Diplomacy.” Foreign Affairs 74, no. 4 (1995), 160–163.
Mattli, Walter. The Logic of Regional Integration: Europe and Beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
OSCE. “Who We Are.” Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. http://www.osce.org/whatistheosce. Accessed February 7, 2017.
Percival, Bronson. The Dragon Looks South: China and Southeast Asia in the New Century. Westport, Conn: Praeger Security International, 2007.
Potkin, Fanny. “The Truth Behind ASEAN’s Vanishing South China Sea Statement.” Forbes Magazine, June 16, 2016. http://www.forbes.com/sites/fannypotkin/2016/06/16/now-you-see-it-now-you-dont-the-truth-behind-aseans-vanishing-south-china-sea-statement/#5c97e8a13d1a. Accessed February 7, 2017.
Quilop, Raymund Jose G. The ARF Experience: Institution Building in the Asia-Pacific. Quezon City, Philippines: Office of Strategic and Special Studies, Armed Forces of the Philippines, 2002.
Simon, Shledon W. “The ASEAN Regional Forum.” In The Routledge Handbook of Asian Security Studies, edited by Sumit Ganguly, Andrew Scobell, and Joseph Chinyong Liow, 300–310. London: Routledge, 2010.
Snyder, Scott. “The South China Sea Dispute: Prospects for Preventive Diplomacy.” United States Institute of Peace. Last modified August 1, 1996. http://www.usip.org/publications/the-south-china-sea-dispute-prospects-preventive-diplomacy. Accessed February 9, 2017.
Snyder, Scott, Brad Glosserman, and Ralph A. Cossa. “Confidence Building Measures in the South China Sea.” Issues & Insights 2, no. 01 (August 2001). https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/publication/issuesinsightsv01n02.pdf. Accessed February 7, 2017.
Song, Yann-huei. United States and Territorial Disputes in the South China Sea: A Study of Ocean Law and Politics. Baltimore: University of Maryland School of Law, 2002.
Song, Yann-Huei. “Cross–Strait Interactions on the South China Sea Issues: A Need for CBMs.” Marine Policy 29, no. 3 (2005), 265–280.
Stedman, Stephen J. “Alchemy for a New World Order: Overselling ‘Preventive Diplomacy’.” Foreign Affairs 74, no. 3 (1995), 14–20.
Stein, Arthur A. Why Nations Cooperate: Circumstances and Choice in International Relations. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990.
Swanström, Niklas. “Conflict Management and Negotiations in the South China Sea: The ASEAN Way?” Paper presented at Workshop on The South China Sea Conflict, Oslo, March 31, 1999.
Weatherbee, Donald E. “Re-Assessing Indonesia’s Role in the South China Sea.” ISEAS Perspective 2016, no. 18 (April 2016).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Lopes de Souza, M. (2018). Beneath the Surface of Consensus: The Development of Confidence-Building Measures Between the PRC and ASEAN in the South China Sea Disputes. In: Spangler, J., Karalekas, D., Lopes de Souza, M. (eds) Enterprises, Localities, People, and Policy in the South China Sea . Critical Studies of the Asia-Pacific. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62828-8_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62828-8_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62827-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62828-8
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)