Southeast Asia and theories of regional integration

Abstract

Southeast Asia has historically been an area of much turmoil and perhaps more so during the last three decades than any other region. Certainly the conflicts that have occurred have tended to be of a more spectacular kind than those elsewhere, and the spectacular and contemporary usually leave a great imprint on people's mind. But while other regions have their conflicts , simultaneous processes of cooperation and integration at various levels have taken place. It is in this context sufficient to mention developments in Western Europe, Latin America, and East Africa. As a result of a combination of factors such as traditional rivalries , internal in stability , external intervention and so on, the countries of Southeast Asia have been slower in developing the cooperative side of their relations than other parts of the world. The latter have experienced a development towards what Karl Deutsch and others have called a 'sense of community', that is , 'a belief on the part of individuals in a group that they have come to an agreement on at least this one point; that common social problems must and can be resolved by processes of "peaceful change". By peaceful change we mean the resolution of social problems, normally by institutionalised procedures without resort to large scale physical force. Whatever else Southeast Asia may be said to be, the region does not constitute a security community in the sense referred to by Deutsch. Nor have any two or more countries within the region reached such a level in their relations. What then is the situation in Southeast Asia? Is there a trend towards increased cooperation, a greater sense of community and integration? What are the most significant factors urging such processes along? What are on the other hand the factors hampering such developments? The answer to these and similar questions may for those familiar with experiences in Western Europe in particular seem rather straightforward. Once the conditions which existed and exist in Western Europe and elsewhere, for that matter, obtain in Southeast Asia, the region is firmly set on the path to community and in tegration . But apart from the fact that these conditions may never obtain in Southeast Asia, those that do exist today would seem to be the very negation of those assisting the integration process in Europe. Conditions such as advanced economies, near to similar levels of industrialization , pluralism, and democratic political systems are not on the whole characteristics of Southeast Asian societies . Must one, then, conclude that developments akin to those taking place in other regions cannot eventuate in Southeast Asia? In order to throw some light on this question this study will examine some of the conditions and processes in Southeast Asia favourable and unfavourable to integration and community formation, and it will seek to relate the findings to the already existing body of knowledge about regional integration. Such an analysis has interest both in terms of the light it may throw on regional processes in Southeast Asia, and the contribution it may make to knowledge about regional integration in general either by confirming, modifying, or discontinuing existing hypotheses, or by generating the formulation of new ones.