ASEAN’s Cooperative Security Enterprise Critical Studies of the Asia Pacific Series Series Editor: Mark Beeson, Professor in the Department in Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham, UK Critical Studies of the Asia Pacific showcases new research and scholarship on what is arguably the most important region in the world in the twenty-first century. The rise of China and the continuing strategic importance of this dynamic economic area to the United States mean that the Asia-Pacific will remain crucially important to policymakers and scholars alike. The unifying theme of the series is a desire to publish the best theoretically informed, origi- nal research on the region. Titles in the series cover the politics, economics, and security of the region, as well as focusing on its institutional processes, individual countries, issues, and leaders. Titles include: Hiro Katsumata ASEAN’S COOPERATIVE SECURITY ENTERPRISE Norms and Interests in the ASEAN Regional Forum Barry Wain MALAYSIAN MAVERICK Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times Critical Studies of the Asia Pacific Series Series Standing Order ISBN 978-0-230-22896-2 (Hardback) 978-0-230-22897-9 (Paperback) (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England ASEAN’s Cooperative Security Enterprise Norms and Interests in the ASEAN Regional Forum Hiro Katsumata Assistant Professor Waseda University Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, Japan © Hiro Katsumata 2009 Foreword © Amitav Acharya 2009 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-22929-7 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-31068-5 ISBN 978-0-230-27703-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230277038 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 Contents List of Figures and Table vi Foreword vii Preface and Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations xii Part I Introduction and Main Propositions 1 Introduction 3 2 The Significance of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) 16 Part II ASEAN’s Initiative 3 The Conventional Explanation for the Establishment of the ARF 37 4 An Idea-focused Explanation for the Establishment of the ARF 49 5 ASEAN in the ARF 77 Part III External Powers in the ARF 6 China 101 7 The United States 119 8 Australia 138 Part IV Conclusion 9 East Asia and the Asia-Pacific 161 References 174 Index 199 v List of Figures and Table Figures 5.1 Cooperative security as a complement 82 5.2 Cooperative security as a substitution 82 6.1 ARF activities in non-ASEAN countries 108 Table 5.1 Characteristics of security mechanisms 80 vi Foreword The establishment of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in 1994 was widely seen as a turning point in multilateral security cooperation in the Asia Pacific. Not only was the ARF Asia’s first multilateral security institution, but it was also led by ASEAN, a group of weaker states which had formed Asia’s first viable multilateral grouping in 1967. Moreover, although a regional forum, the ARF’s membership included practically all the major powers of the contemporary inter- national system. This would produce an inevitable scepticism about the ARF. Can such a structural imbalance where the weak lead the strong produce a viable regional institution? Added to this question were others. Why was the ARF formed? Was it to simply to keep the US engaged in the region so that it can continue to balance the rising power of China or to create a genuine mechanism of cooperative security in which all great powers commit themselves to mutual restraint? Who were the real progenitors of the ARF? Was it ASEAN or outside powers like Australia, Canada and Japan? But most importantly, what if any has been its contribution to Asian regional order? Is it merely a talk shop, or a agent of normative suasion with the potential to significantly affect the security dilemma in Asia? This book offers a thorough investigation and valuable insights into these questions, which are critical to any understanding of contemporary Asian security order. While Michael Leifer’s 1996 monograph on the ARF has for long remained the standard work on the subject, Katsumata offers an alternative perspective, one that focuses the role of the ARF as an agent of norms, or what he calls a ‘norm brewery’. He traces the evolution of the cooperative security norm in Asia. Unlike Leifer who argued that the ARF’s evolution and role will be shaped by the balance of power among the region’s great powers, Katsumata argues that the ARF itself can moderate and influ- ence great power interactions by engaging them multilaterally and embedding them into a set of norms that will constrain the security dilemma in the Asia Pacific. vii viii Foreword No matter which perspective one sides with, there is little question that Katsumata’s book is an important counterpoint to the conven- tional realist view of international and regional institutions as mere adjuncts of balance of power dynamics. His rejection of the view of the ARF as a mere ‘talking shop’ will both provoke and persuade. Combining valuable empirical research and tight argumentation, Katsumata systematically demonstrates the effects of the ARF on the US, China, and Australia. His book offers several interesting insights into how the region’s two major players, the US and China, came to accept the ARF from an initial posture of scepticism and even rejec- tion. The book also points to the conditions that are likely to pro- mote ARF-like security cooperation in other parts of the world. Here he argues that material power resources or liberal domestic politics and values may be less important than environmental uncertainty and compatibility between existing and new norms. The book benefits from Dr Katsumata’s long-time work experience in the region. Having been based in Singapore from 2003 to 2007, he was able to interact with a variety of officials dealing with the ARF and participate in numerous seminars and conferences on Asian security multilateralism. He has emerged as the best Japanese scholar on the ARF, and his work is sure to be regarded as one of the most important contributions to Asia Pacific security multilateralism. Amitav Acharya Washington, DC, 30 October 2009 Preface and Acknowledgements Does the cooperative security enterprise of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) matter? If so, in what sense? Can ASEAN’s cooperative security enterprise be regarded as one of the pathways to regional security in Asia? In this study, I explore these questions by focusing on the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), which constitutes the core of ASEAN’s initiative for cooperative security in Asia. Most students of Asian security regard the ARF as a useless ‘talk- ing shop’ in which no significant measure to achieve security has been instituted. This is because ASEAN’s approach appears naïve, in that it is based on dialogue and consultation aimed at enhancing a sense of mutual understanding and trust. However, what I argue in this book is that ASEAN’s cooperative security enterprise does matter, and that the ARF is an important pathway to regional security. Cooperative security is important to the ASEAN countries because it is in line with what they perceive as an appropriate approach to security; moreover, it is important as its promotion has been increasingly beneficial to their strategic interests defined in egoistic terms. Here three elements of their self-interest are relevant– that is, the achievement of their ‘national interests’ or ‘national security’ through the enhancement of the following three factors: ASEAN’s relations with China, its autonomy vis-à-vis the United States, and its centrality to Asia-Pacific regionalism in the security field. Ultimately, the key to encapsulating the significance of ASEAN’s cooperative security enterprise is the positive interaction between the pursuit of normative appropriateness and the calcula- tion of self-interest. This study is premised on the belief that, today, the need to explore the significance of ASEAN’s cooperative security enterprise is grow- ing, in parallel with the pursuit of an East Asian community by the countries of East Asia. Within the frameworks of the ASEAN Plus Three and the East Asia Summit, these countries have been seeking such a community. However, where East Asian security is concerned, the notion of community remains ambiguous. It is difficult to say that these countries have a shared understanding of an appropriate ix