The growth of the influences of China and the US—and other emerging powers in the Southeast Asian region creates new opportunities as well as challenges to the area. However, at the same time, ASEAN as the regional intergovernmental organization in Southeast Asia should be responsible for establishing constant regional stability in the region; and in realizing this, the ASEAN countries must give more importance to regional interests.
The main aims and purposes of ASEAN include maintaining regional security, beneficial cooperation, and effective collaboration. While its most fundamental principles are respect for the sovereignty of the states, the rights of its members to be free from external interference, and non-intervention policy in their internal affairs. However, in fact, the nature of ASEAN countries remarkably differs regarding external intervention preferences. For instance, countries like Thailand, Philippines, and Singapore have strong alliances with foreign powers; while Indonesia and Malaysia prefer to have little-to-no external intervention within their national affairs. Thus, it is very questionable as to how to strengthen the effectiveness of ASEAN in the region when its countries have different levels of welcoming external interferences.
During the Cold War era when ASEAN was firstly established, ASEAN initially aimed to boost confidence within its countries by establishing the standard of regional autonomy in the region. That time, ASEAN focused on shifting the confrontation and disputes into cooperation. Therefore the end of Cold War that marked the normalizations of relations among countries could be seen as the stimulator of the formation of ASEAN. Nevertheless, as the organization grows, in the post-Cold War era, ASEAN seeks more engagement from Southeast Asian countries other than the country members. This was the reason why ASEAN welcomed other Southeast Asian nations to join the organization, such as Vietnam in 1995, Myanmar and Lao DPR in 1997, and Cambodia two years after. By letting these countries join the organization, ASEAN adds more concerns on the list. For instance, the existence of Vietnam would add the issue of Sino-Vietnam contention to the list of regional issues, while the record of Myanmar with its military junta is not by the stance of ASEAN.
The fact that the ASEAN was formed in the middle of the Cold War era indicates that security is the critical issue. Despite the challenge of multiple levels of external intervention preference, another problem that appeared on the surface has been the question of the leadership role in ASEAN. The integration of ASEAN is based on the theory of liberal intergovernmentalism which explains interstate negotiation, regional cooperation, and intergovernmental arrangements. As part of the consequences, its countries wish to delegate organizational functions, and it made the states do not expect to be the most influential power holder of all. This makes the leadership role in ASEAN remains absent or in another word, leaderless; whereas, the leadership is key equipment in an organization, and it is one of the determinants of how the organization steers itself on its road to success. Â
Among different forms of leadership, namely unilateral leadership, cooperative leadership, and periodical leadership—according to the Director of the European Union (EU) Centre in Singapore, Dr Yeo Lay Hwee. For ASEAN to be an effective regional intergovernmental organization in the region, the most suitable kind of leadership that applies to ASEAN is cooperative leadership or also often called as coalition leadership, instead of a single leader. The leadership itself must be developed on each other’s strength, where countries are doing their tasks based on their field of expertise. Applying this idea to the context of EU, one can see the roles of France and Germany in the organization as the coalition leaders.
With emerging powers provide challenges and opportunities for ASEAN countries, without revisiting the fundamental principles of ASEAN and having a well-defined leadership, ASEAN would remain as an intergovernmental organization to discuss the regional issues instead of the organization whose role can positively contribute to regional security in Southeast Asia.