"Enhanced Interaction" with Myanmar and the Project of a Security Community: Is ASEAN Refining or Breaking with its Diplomatic and Security Culture?

This article explores whether ASEAN's approach toward Myanmar since May 2003 and the agreed ASEAN Security Community (ASC) concept can be seen to represent major developments in ASEAN's diplomatic and security culture. The article explains that ASEAN'S recent diplomatic practice vis-à-vis Yangon qualifies as "enhanced interaction ". It also shows that the Declaration of ASEAN Concord II and related documents underscore the collective commitment among ASEAN states to pursue a limited refinement of ASEAN's normative terrain. However, in view of the limits of "enhanced interaction" as well as the opposition to the original Indonesian proposal to develop an ASC, the paper concludes that it is best to view both ASEAN's recent diplomatic practice and efforts to stake out a larger role for A SEAN in preventing, managing and resolving intra-state conflicts and inter-state disputes as not only being in line with, but also as reaffirming the norms and practices of ASEAN's diplomatic and security culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]