Non-Traditional Security Cooperation And The Evolution Of Southeast Asian Open Regionalism

Since the end of the Cold War, security politics in Southeast Asia have mostly been dominated by America’s "San Francisco System" of bilateral security alliances, namely with Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines. However, China’s rise and ASEAN’s increased role as a regional decision-making body have altered the political landscape in the region, resulting in the region becoming a sort of strategic battleground where the U.S., China and Japan all struggle for influence. Amongst this struggle, the ASEAN countries are also attempting to maintain their centrality in the region by building a regional order centered on non-interference, respect for sovereignty, and peaceful resolution of disputes. The end result of this evolution is not yet determined, with differing views on whether the region will continue to be dominated by bilateral security alliances, an ASEAN-led security order, or some combination of the two. The question is further complicated by ASEAN’s stated goal of creating a political-security by 2015. A security community is defined as a region in which the possibility of open conflict between countries in the region is near unthinkable. However, in a region where traditional security cooperation is hard to come by, reaching this level of trust is nearly impossible. Several scholars have argued, however, that non-traditional security cooperation, through institutional spill-over, could lead to advances in the traditional security realm. This paper uses piracy in the South China Sea as a case study to examine the effect of non-traditional security cooperation on regional institutions in Southeast Asia. Through analyzing the gradual progression of anti-piracy cooperation, including international agreements, ASEAN, ASEAN+3, EAS, and ARF level meetings, and multilateral and bilateral exercises, this paper attempt to show that anti-piracy cooperation, though institutional spill-over, is leading to closer security relations between countries in Southeast Asia. In addition, this paper also argues that the proliferation of cooperative mechanisms has resulted in the institutionalizing of communication and a higher level of confidence amongst ASEAN members, China, Japan, and the US, which has the potential to lead to a sort of security order in the region that could help to manage such "powder kegs" as the South China Sea territorial disputes.