Transformation From State-Centered to People-Centered Security in Asean Community: Milestone of the Asean Approach to Human Security

Abstract

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) through the establishment of the ASEAN Community in 2015 has formally entered a new milestone in its security perspectives, from solely focus on state-centered to people-centered security. Previously, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 1994 introduced the people-centered approach to security, namely human security. The United Nations (UN) has emphasised that the human security framework facilitates member states to handle widespread and cross-cutting challenges to the survival, livelihood, and dignity of their people. Nevertheless, while ASEAN community concerns on peoplecentered security, it has not made any reference to the term human security in its formal documents. The purpose of this paper is to examine the ASEAN version of people-centered security, whether substantially following the UN's human security or creating a new different version. This study applies process tracing analysis and found that ASEAN develops its own version of people-centered security embraced by ASEAN Way as the governing value in ASEAN. The study brings a new contribution to human security studies by proposing ASEAN version of human security in addition to the UN, Japanese, Canadian, and the Europe Union approach to human security.