Introduction: Security Sector Reform in Southeast Asia

Abstract

As a region, Southeast Asia has been somewhat of a latecomer with regard to what Huntington termed the “third wave of democratization” (Huntington 1991). This striking rush of political change started in Southern Europe in the 1970s, reached the military dictatorships of the Latin Americas in the 1980s and, most notably, fostered the democratization processes in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in 1989/90. The so-called third wave did not topple authoritarian regimes in Southeast Asia until the second half of the 1980s (the Philippines), the early 1990s (Thailand) and the late 1990s (Indonesia, Timor-Leste). Despite the fact that various Southeast Asian countries, most notably Indonesia, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Cambodia and the Philippines, have undergone significant transformation processes throughout the last two to three decades, the results of the transformation processes have nonetheless proven not to be irreversible. The potential fragility of the democratic transitions in the region has most clearly been exemplified by the coup d’état launched by the Thai military in 2006, which removed the government of Thaksin Shinawatra from power. What’s more, the so-called third wave did not reach the shores of Myanmar’s military dictatorship. So far it has also, arguably, had few transformative effects on Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei, and has had even less of an impact on Vietnam and Laos.