Details

The topic of intra-ASEAN security issues and the role of ASEAN centrality has become central to contemporary Southeast Asian geopolitics in light of continuing events in Myanmar and ASEAN’s much debated response thereto. While the concept of ASEAN centrality has been critiqued as under-developed and in need of much deeper institutionalization, it is also viewed and analysed overwhelmingly through the lens of ASEAN’s place in the context of Sino-American rivalry and competition for hegemony by those two great powers in the Indo-Pacific, ignoring key elements of this concept as it relates to the region itself.

Meanwhile, the Indo-Pacific region emerges from the post-pandemic order with many unresolved questions regarding sustainable recovery, climate change, water security, etc. These are pan-regional security issues in nature but their impacts on the Southeast Asian region are more severe due to the vulnerability of smaller regional states. Adaptation to post-pandemic economic trends, including the repositioning of the region in the global supply chain and the digital revolution, are all arising issues for ASEAN centrality.

Besides, as major powers increase their strategic rivalry streching from the maritime to trade to the digital domains, ASEAN countries risk being locked up in a strategic tug-of-war. Pressure to choose side is mounting, that could tear ASEAN apart and destabilize the region. In that strategic context, ASEAN countries are delicately tuning their policies vis-à-vis the major powers so as to ensure their national interests and autonomy in turbulent time.

The DAV-CICP virtual conference is designed under the guideline that ASEAN’s centrality should be maintained to effectively cope with both intra-ASEAN and extra-regional challenges. However, key questions remain as to how the emerging security issues pose disruption to ASEAN centrality and what its member states should do to maintain, enhance and revitalize ASEAN centrality in the post-pandemic regional order.

Objectives

The conference will seek to address the following questions concerning ASEAN centrality at the time of turbulences:

1. What are the issues and challenges that ASEAN has to confront, both from within and outside the ASEAN region?

2. Why does ASEAN centrality is still seen as critical in addressing these issues and challenges, regardless of the difficulties posed to its member states and the organization as a whole?

3. In what way should ASEAN member states maintain and renovate ASEAN centrality, especially vis-à-vis emerging arrangement like the Quad, bilateral and mini-lateral mechanisms?