A theoretical study on the relevance and utility of the five power defence arrangements

As the successor to the now-defunct Anglo-Malayan Defence Agreement (AMDA), the Five Power Defence Arrangements (FPDA) was seen by many observers as a temporary arrangement for Britain to smoothly transition out of Southeast Asia due to the institution’s loose consultative political framework (Chin 1991, p. 193). Its longevity has surprised many observers, some even questioning its relevance in more recent years (Lim,2017). This paper aims to answer the question as to whether the FPDA is still relevant to the region’s security architecture in the present day, and whether the FPDA’s longevity can be sustained into the future decades by remaining relevant and beneficial to its members and to the region. In analyzing the existing literature, we observed the insufficient literature focusing on the evaluation of the FPDA from a theoretical perspective, thus there is a lack of theoretical evidence to explain if the FPDA can sustain its relevance in the future. This paper argues that the FPDA is indeed relevant to the existing regional security architecture, and has the capacity to sustain its relevance in the long term. This paper will analyse the utility of the FPDA using theoretical concepts of IR, namely structural realism, neoliberal institutionalism, and constructivism to study the development and behavior of the FPDA, and through evaluation of the theoretical findings we will prove the enduring relevance of the FPDA to its members and the region.Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy and Global Affair