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CHAPTER 2 CONCEPTUALISING POLITICO-SECURITY REGIONALISM
Introduction
The term politico-security regionalism is composed of two different concepts: ‘political security’ and ‘regionalism’. That is, politico-security regionalism is concerned with political security in its regional context. By politico- or political security, on the one hand, is meant the ‘security politics’ of conflict and cooperation as social reality, which is defined and redefined by states as main actors. By regionalism, on the other hand, is meant a bundle of political ideas, norms and interests, which are socially (re)constructed by regional states. In this context, it is important to note that ‘regional states’, which denote the member states of regional grouping, should be distinguished from both global states and nation-states. In terms of the agents of regionalism, in fact, both terms ‘global states’ and ‘nation-states’ are not sufficient to explain the concept of politico-security regionalism.From a globalist perspective of Wallerstein’s world-system theory, states are normally seen as a substructure of international system to maintain a capitalist world system that contains a core, a periphery, and a semi-periphery (Viotti and Kauppi 1999:341-360). From a neo-realist perspective of Waltz’s structural realism, states (which can be regarded as a major component of anarchical international structure) are powerless to change the structure in which they find themselves (Viotti and Kauppi 1999:66-76). Both perspectives are deterministic in character in which individual policymakers can do little to affect events despite a differing degree. In exploring the concept of politicosecurity regionalism driven by regional states as main actors in this study, however, the term ‘regional states’ is often used from a perspective of social constructivism so that it can be seen as constitutive elements in which intersubjective factors such as norms, identities and interests are not treated as fixed, but as being flexible, to be made and remade (cf Söderbaum 1998:75-92). Given the aforementioned assumptions, thus, the concept of politico-security regionalism can be understood in the open-ended context of political projects to be constructed by ‘regional states’ in response to external, as well as internal forces. In fact, both concepts of security and regionalism seem to encompass widely diverging definitions. In terms of security, as Buzan (1991:7) points out in People, States & Fear,the concept has an ‘essentially contested nature’. A number of scholars contest the definition of the term because at its core, there are moral, ideological, and normative elements that render empirical data irrelevant and prevent reasonable people from agreeing with one another on a fixed definition (Lipschutz, 1995:7). Despite the lack of an agreed definition, Buzan et al. (1998) suggest a typology for analysing security comprised of five major sectors: military, political, economic, societal and environmental. The authors attempted to broaden the definition of security to include freedom from military, political, societal, economic and environmental threats. Yet, given that all security threats are constituted politically (Ayoob, 1995:8-12; Buzan et al., 1998:141-162), it becomes possible to see the concept of security in the political context.As indicated above, thus, given that ‘all [security] threats … are … defined politically’(Buzan et al. 1998:141), the influence of the other sectors on matters that affect security must be filtered through the political sector and must be relevant to that sector: namely, when developments in other sectors threaten to have political meanings, contexts and consequences such as threats to state boundaries, political institutions, or governing regimes, these other variables must be taken into account as a part of politico-security calculus (Ayoob, 1995:8). In this sense, it can be argued that the political sector needs to be informed by the other areas of human activities, including military, economic, social and environmental (Buzan 1991:19). However, as Ayoob (1995:8) points out, the politico-security realm should retain its distinctiveness from other realms: that is, phenomena such as economic deprivation and environmental degradation can be viewed as events, occurrences, and variables that may be linked to, but are essentially distinct from, the realm of politico-security as defined for purposes of this study. In terms of regionalism, as mentioned earlier, the concept is also contested and complex. As Hurrell (1995a:333; 1995b:38) notes, ‘the range of factors that may be implicated in the growth of regionalism is very wide and includes economic, social, political, cultural and historic dimensions’. In addition, Fawcett (1995:10) argues that ‘just as there are no absolute or naturally determined regions, there is no single explanation that encompasses the origins and development of the regional idea’.
Nonetheless, given that regionalism becomes a state or political project (Hettne, 1994; Gamble and Payne, 1996; Grugel and Hout, 1999), regionalism can also be studied in the context of political dynamics that are socially constructed through various interactions among states. Thus both terms ‘security’ and ‘regionalism’ can be understood in the political context of states as main actors. However, the assumptions above need to be argued more fully in this chapter. Therefore, this chapter will focus on the term ‘security regionalism’ in the political context by illuminating related concepts, including region, regionalism, regionalisation, regional security, and politico-security. In reviewing the literature on these topics, this chapter seeks to address key issues which are at the heart of a debate on politicosecurity and regionalism: what is meant by these terms? what does link the two different concepts such as ‘politico-security’ and ‘regionalism’? and why is it that the multi-level approach is necessary to utilise these concepts? In exploring these central questions, firstly, the chapter will try to define politico- or political security with exploring the related concepts, including weak states, states-making, sovereignty and the state as the primary referent/agent of politico-security. Thereafter, it will discuss the characteristics of ‘regionalism’ in particular context of‘new’ regionalism. In doing so, in this chapter, I suggest the three different levels (including the domestic, regional, extra-regional levels) so as to assist in clarifying the concept of politico-security regionalism. Under the assumption that such regional organisations as ASEAN and SADC(C) are primarily driven by the ‘member’ states respectively, nonetheless, I attempt to stress the regional level through holding the political sector as primary and regional states as the focal point to analyse security regionalisms of ASEAN and SADC(C). In conceptualising the term ‘politico-security regionalism’ in this chapter, it is important to note that the concept will be seen as regional (political) projects which can be shaped and reshaped by the regional (member) states.
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Research Problem and Aim
1.3 Theoretical Orientations
1.4 Demarcation of the Study
1.5 Research Methods
1.6 Limitations
1.7 Levels of Analysis
1.8 Structure of the Study and Outline
CHAPTER 2 CONCEPTUALISING POLITICO-SECURITY REGIONALISM
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Defining Security: Politico-Security
2.2.1 Weak States, States-Making and Politico-Security
2.2.2 Sovereignty and Politico-Security
2.2.3 The State: Primary Referent/Agent of Politico-Security
2.3 Defining Regionalism: Politico-Security Regionalism
2.3.1 The Domestic Level
2.3.2 The Regional Level
2.3.3 The Extra-Regional Level
2.4 Conclusion
CHAPTER 3 THEORISING POLITICO-SECURITY REGIONALISM
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Neo-realism
3.3 Neo-liberal institutionalism
3.4 Constructivism
3.4.1 Institutions
3.4.2 Norms
3.4.3 Collective Identity
3.5 Conclusion
CHAPTER 4 POLITICO-SECURITY REGIONALISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: THE EMERGENCE OF THE ‘ASEAN WAY’ IN THE COLD-WAR ERA
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The Origin of ASEAN
4.3 The Evolution of ASEAN
4.4 ASEAN’s Collective Identity: norms and principles
4.5 ASEAN’s Security Diplomacy: the Cambodian conflict (1978-1989)
4.6 Conclusion
CHAPTER 5 POLITICO-SECURITY REGIONALISM IN SOUTHERN AFRICA: SADCC AS A RESPONSE TO APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA IN THE COLD WAR ERA
5.1 Introduction
5.2 The Origin of SADCC
5.3 The Evolution of SADCC
5.4 Politico-Economic Security Strategy
5.5 Politico-Military Security Cooperation
5.6 Conclusion
CHAPTER 6 POLITICO-SECURITY REGIONALISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA:CONTINUITY AND CHALLENGE TO THE ‘ASEAN WAY’ IN THE POST-COLD WAR ERA
6.1 Introduction
6.2 The Emergence of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF): The impact of the ‘ASEAN Way’ on the ARF
6.3 Conflict Management in the ASEAN Region
6.3.1 The South China Sea Conflict (1992-2004)
6.3.2 The East Timor Crisis (1999-2000)
6.4 Continuity and Challenge to the ‘ASEAN Way’
6.4.1 The Asian Economic Crisis and Regional Security: Rethinking the principle of non-intervention
6.5 Conclusion
CHAPTER 7 THE REMAKING OF SADC POLITICO-SECURITY REGIONALISM IN THE POST-COLD WAR ERA
7.1 Introduction
7.2 The SADC Organ (OPDS): The emergence of a formal regional security structure
7.3 Conflict Management in the DRC Crisis (1998-2004)
7.3.1 The Zimbabwe-led Intervention in the DRC: Collective Self-Defence?
7.3.2 The Unilateral Intervention in the DRC: Pursuing the legitimacy of operation
7.3.3 Peacemaking in the DRC Conflict: From unilateral intervention to multilateral diplomacy
7.4 Restructuring SADC’s Security Architecture
7.4.1 From OPDS to OPDSC: Towards regional security integration
7.4.2 The Politics of the SADC Mutual Defence Pact
7.5 Conclusion
CHAPTER 8 A COMPARISON OF THE TWO CASE STUDIES
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Comparative Findings
8.2.1 Institutionalisation
8.2.2 Norm-based Conflict Management
8.2.3 Collective (Regional) Identity as Exceptionalism
8.2.4 Bringing In Multi-level Approaches to Politico-Security Regionalism224
8.3 Theoretical Findings
8.3.1 Neo-realism
8.3.2 Neo-liberal institutionalism
8.3.3 Constructivism
8.4 Conclusion
CHAPTER 9 CONCLUSION
BIBLIOGRAPHY
