'Talking Their Walk'? The Evolution of Defense Regionalism in Southeast Asia

摘要

This article looks at the regionalization of defense relations in Southeast Asia from the Cold War to the present. The evolution of defense cooperation involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries and their dialogue-partner countries has been impressive, with the formation of the ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting (ADMM) and ADMM+ defense-ministerial arrangements, themselves the beneficiaries of more established dialogue processes. Despite these developments, the aim of defense regionalism in Southeast Asia has remained decidedly modest. While "action-oriented" cooperation in various nonconven-tional security areas has been incorporated into its agenda, Southeast Asian defense regionalism persists largely as an exercise in informal confidence building, with at best limited and incidental forays into preventive diplomacy. In conclusion, it still lacks the strategic imperative and institutional coherence befitting a model of regionalism.