Publication Date

2021

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Glas, Aarie

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Political Science

Abstract

Since 1992, five ASEAN member states (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam) have been involved in territorial disputes with China at the South China Sea (SCS). China’s presence in the SCS has prevented the populations of the five ASEAN member states from getting safe and productive access to the lucrative natural resources and trade routes to the outside regions. Even though the SCS disputes have caused economic and security problems for at least half of ASEAN member states, it is puzzling that ASEAN has been suboptimal and ineffective in responding to the disputes. To answer this puzzle, I argue that ASEAN has been ineffective in responding to the SCS disputes due to three interrelated reasons. First, China’s economic and emergent power has disrupted ASEAN’s unity. Second, ASEAN member states prefer to practice conflict resolution through the ASEAN Way, which is driven by the norms of informality, consensus and non-interference. ASEAN members have formal conflict resolution mechanisms such as the ASEAN Regional Forum and ASEAN Ministerial Meeting to work on the resolution for the SCS. Instead, they desire to discuss their differences informally and bilaterally. Second, ASEAN member states lack generalized trust amongst themselves and with China. In terms of methodology, this paper relies on the community of practice framework. To do so, the paper begins with a survey of ASEAN’s activities from 1992-2020. Then, it shows the interrelations of the three factors through a snapshot of the 45th AMM in Cambodia. This study relies on primary sources from ASEAN’s documents and publications and secondary sources from literature that focuses on norms, trust, conflict management, and dependency. This study also contributes to the literature on trust by explicitly applying, for the first time, the concept of trust to explain ASEAN’s ineffectiveness.

Extent

80 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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