ASEAN’s Position on the South China Sea and Implications for Regional Peace and Security

Abstract

Since its founding in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has weathered its fair share of regional security challenges. Cold War conflicts in Vietnam and Cambodia to territorial disputes between its member states such as Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia have long concerned ASEAN. Indeed, the Philippines’ claims to Sabah in 1968–1969 put a spanner in the works of regional integration. In the twenty-first century, territorial disputes in the South China Sea dominate ASEAN’s security agenda. Like all regional organisations such as the EU (European Union) or the NATO (Non-Atlantic Treaty Organisation), having to reconcile the varied national interests and ambitions of its component member states in order to present a concerted “regional” front is an extremely tall order. Even the EU, widely seen as the paragon of regional integration, struggled to convince northern members, such as Germany and Finland, to bail out southern members Greece and Spain. NATO members also differed over how to deal with the Kosovo crisis in 1999.