Dimensions of Security

External security threat perceptions with politico-ideological and military undertones were among the factors influencing the creation of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the 1960s. As the Singapore Minister of Defence, Teo Chee Hean commented on 3 June 2007 at the 7th International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), Asian Security Summit (the Shangri-La Dialogue) in Singapore, ‘the original ASEAN 6 (Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) were all anti-Communist and sought close ties with the West’. However, only Philippines and Thailand (and Pakistan from South Asia) were among signatories to the South East Asia Collective Defence Treaty in 1954 leading to the establishment of the anti-Communist South East Asia Treaty Organisation (SEATO) which was dissolved by 1977. At the Bali Summit in October 2003, ASEAN Concord II was signed announcing the concept of ASEAN as a Security Community.

On the other hand, in the neighbouring region of South Asia, at its first Summit in 1985, the ‘fundamental goal’ of the SAARC, in accordance with its founding Charter, was declared to be ‘accelerating economic and social development’. Perestroika was gradually emerging in Moscow by then and rigid ideological confrontations were easing. All seven founder member states of SAARC were also members of the Non-Aligned Movement.

At the same time, for most of the South Asian states there certainly were security concerns, though not primarily of an external nature.