Constructivism and realism and the crucial nature of security: ASEAN and Myanmar (1991-2012)

This research concerns the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a regional actor and aims to explore ASEAN’s policies related to Myanmar (1991-2012) at the same time dealing with challenges to the region. It is built around the research question that investigates what was the most important dimension in ASEAN’s action regarding Myanmar. Though various kinds of interactions exist between the Association and Yangon that include economic and cultural aspects, the emphasis of this research is on the security element. A focus on the recent literature on the security challenges in Southeast Asia creates scope for this research to engage with constructivist and realist perspectives to explain ASEAN’s affairs in Southeast Asia in the post-Cold War period. Applying both views, this research explores how ASEAN engaged in certain practices and behavior concerning Myanmar that may be found to be logically understandable by explaining these as ‘balance of power’, ‘policy of communication’ and ‘ASEAN’s policy of restructuring itself’. It argues that these actions are complementary, and shows that the findings highlight that the range of policies explored clarifies the fact that the most important dimension in ASEAN’s affairs with a direct or indirect link to Myanmar was the pursuit and maintenance of security in the region. This investigation encourages other researchers to focus on ASEAN’s interactions with different countries in the region, either discussing how ASEAN has dealt with the challenges and attempted to heighten its image, or implementing a different methodology, eventually confirming or supplementing the findings provided here