Will the Real ASEAN Please Stand Up? Security, Community, and Democracy in Southeast Asia

Donald K. Emmerson - Director, Southeast Asia Forum at the Asia-Pacific Research Center; Lecturer, International Relations Program; SIIS Senior Fellow, Stanford University

In 2007 the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be forty years old. Yet the most basic questions about it remain controversial. What exactly is it? An organization? A discourse? A regime? A concert? A community? A facade? None, one, some, or all of the above? Has it succeeded? Has it failed? Both? To what extent? How? Why? In the context of these uncertainties, this talk will explore three topics: (1) the controversy over whether ASEAN is, or is not, a security community; (2)the incompatibility of member sovereignty versus member democracy as principles of ASEAN cooperation; and (3) the implications of (1) and (2) for US-ASEAN relations. The talk will draw mainly on two sources: a paper that can be downloaded from http://aparc.stanford.edu/docs/people/emmerson; and a March 2005 research-and-conferencing trip to Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia.