Implementation Study of Public Policies in Defense Diplomacy: A Path Towards ASEAN Defense Community

The Region of Southeast Asia comprises some very different countries, which differ broadly in the number of people, their riches, the security challenges, and administrative systems those states to encounter. This study purposes of addressing the questions: 1) in what way does the implementation of ASEAN’s defense diplomacy policy? 2) To form an ASEAN defense community, what characteristics needed in the implementation of ASEAN’s defense diplomacy policy? While the term “defense diplomacy” has developed in Southeast Asia in the last decades, but the indication of a defense community did not occur in the establishment of ASEAN as a tool of defense diplomacy. Consequently, this study expects to introduce a new viewpoint concerning defense cooperation in the region. This study also attempts to study further whether there are characteristics of ASEAN defense diplomacy, in which the armed forces perform a part in external policy. The research aims to characterize the policy implementation of defense diplomacy in ASEAN and to analyze the existing characteristics of the defense community, which has used for defense diplomacy towards a Southeast Asia defense community. The study narrows to analyzing merely the utility of ASEAN militaries in diplomacy role, mainly limited only in defense cooperation engagements under the structure of ADMM and ADMM-Plus. The researcher used the triangulation test to validate the data. The data analysis used is Grounded Theory research. The result of the analysis is to recognize the policy implementation of ASEAN defense diplomacy and to find characteristics or element which appears in the environment of policy implementation in the defense community, which needed in the defense cooperation and diplomacy policy, towards the path of ASEAN Defense Community. Keywords: Defense, Diplomacy, Community, Policy Implementation DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/10-2-05 Publication date: February 29th 202