DO NOT CITE WITHOUT PERMISSION 1 The Role of Regional Organizations: Are Views Changing? Amitav Acharya Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies Nanyang Technological University Revised version of a paper Prepared for the Pacific Symposium, 2004, National Defense University, Washington, D.C. 22-23 April 2004 In the past few years, regional institutions in the Asia Pacific region seem to have engaged in an exercise in redefining their missions and adjusting to new circumstances and challenges. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have adopted the concept of a “security community”. The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is shifting its focus from inter-state conflicts to transnational issues. The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation is quietly but steadily (APEC) taking on a security role. Last but not the least, a new regional experiment, the ASEAN Plus Three (APT), has emerged as a framework for economic and political cooperation in East Asia. What are the implications of these developments for Asian security order? On the face of it, they look like a fresh start for Asian regionalism. Reviewing these developments, however, this paper finds that the new developments do not represent fundamental changes to the workings of Asian regional organizations. But they do suggest the need to rethink the framework used to evaluate their record beyond the confines of realism and institutionalism. Realists dismiss the role of regional organizations and institutionalists judge them largely in terms if expected utility. Yet, the very fact that most states in the region have turned to regional organizations as one (if not the only way) of the ways of responding to new challenges suggests a number of factors at work, not the least strategic uncertainty, behind the continued relevance of regionalism, in spite of constraints imposed by lack of resources, persistent rivalries, and limited or uncertain political will. The ASEAN Security Community Concept The proposal by Indonesia in 2003 to create an ASEAN security community (ASC) was motivated by two factors. The first was the need to rejuvenate ASEAN after the setback it had suffered in the wake of the Asian economic crisis in 1997. A second motive was Jakarta’s desire, as it assumed the chairmanship of the ASEAN Standing Committee, to reaffirm its commitment to ASEAN, which had been subject to doubt by its neighbours since the downfall of Suharto. The ASEAN Summit in Bali in 2003 endorsed the concept as part of what is officially known as the Bali Concord II. Several observations about the language of the Bali