Non-Traditional Security Challenges, Regional Governance, and the ASEAN Political-Security Community

Much of the attention on institutional development within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has focused on the progress in establishing the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC). Since the idea was first conceived in 1993, much has changed in the regional political and security landscape in Southeast Asia. Among these are the slew of emerging non-traditional security (NTS) challenges confronting the region which compel a re-thinking of regional modalities in order to address these security threats. This paper argues that the APSC is as much a regional political project as it is a security goal. In unpacking the APSC as a regional political and security initiative, the paper examines the importance of regional governance as a framework that can be used to manage transnational problems, while remaining cognizant of the need to embed the dynamics of regional governance within the context of domestic politics.