Regional Securitization of the ISIS in the Southeast Asian Counter-Terrorism Strategies for the Post-ISIS Era

Abstract

In 2017, the United States of America declared the defeat of the ISIS's core territory. Since then, many analysts have argued that the group would threaten the security of several Southeast Asia regions. However, other analysts argued that the threat to the Southeast Asian (SEA) regions should not be exaggerated since it is not serious or critical. This raised the question of alternative regions for its thought and activists. This article critically analyzes the ISIS terrorist threats to SEA regional security in the post-ISIS era. It identifies the key challenges facing the SEA regional counter-terrorism strategies amid the new developments. A qualitative research approach has been adopted with thematic analysis methods in this article. Moreover, the Copenhagen schools' securitization and regional security complex theories have been used as a theoretical framework. Results show that to increase the states and community capacity to deal with this top non-traditional security threat, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its member states continually adopt various initiatives, programs, policies, and strategies.