School of Social and Political Sciences - Theses
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ItemCivil society organisations and human rights in ASEAN: the case of Indonesia( 2018)ASEAN’s progress in human rights has been a puzzling issue, especially given the Association’s rapid transformation after the Cold War. While seemingly demonstrating a formal institutionalisation of human rights, ASEAN progress does not entail any real regional mechanism for guaranteeing human rights protection, signalling a significant gap in its rhetoric and action. In understanding this empirical puzzle, many scholars often focus on evaluating the process of diffusion of norms that originate from outside the region to ASEAN member states. Often underplayed in these accounts are the political dynamics from wider relevant actors within the region that influence norms institutionalisation process. As such, it is important to move beyond state-centric analysis and to dissect myths associated with the process of norm dynamics. This thesis asks: how do civil society organisations (CSOs) engage with ASEAN in shaping the institutionalisation of human rights norms in the region? To answer this question, this thesis focuses on the case of Indonesia and adopts a Bourdieu-inspired constructivist International Relations (IR) perspective in making sense of the nature of institutionalisation of human rights norms in ASEAN and investigating power relations among Indonesian CSOs, Indonesian officials and ASEAN in socialising human rights norms. This thesis argues that the institutionalisation of human rights in the region is significantly shaped by the ASEAN doxa, which comprises existing normative dispositions and Southeast Asian diplomatic mechanisms. Moreover, there are three notable patterns of Indonesian CSOs’ engagement with the process, namely supportive (exemplified by CSIS), critical (exemplified by KontraS) and adaptive (exemplified by HRWG). These patterns contribute to Indonesia’s position on regional human rights issues and the nuanced context where ASEAN human rights institutionalisation process continues to show a gap between rhetoric and action.
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ItemInsights of the Regional Security Complex Theory towards understanding the role of exogenous factors in regional security: the South China Sea dispute and Southeast Asia( 2016)This thesis investigates the benefits of using the Regional Security Complex (RSC) theory, an analytically eclectic approach, towards understanding the role of external factors in Southeast Asian security relations, particularly in light of the escalation of the South China Sea dispute since 2012. The thesis focuses on answering how does the RSC theory explain the role of exogenous factors in regional relations in Southeast Asia? Through the lens of the RSC theory, this research finds that the main role of the South China Sea dispute, as the primary exogenous aspect, has been to expand Southeast Asia’s regional boundary. As a result, this has provided states in the region with a wider amount of policy options to achieve national and regional security. Meanwhile, Southeast Asia remained a multipolar, anarchic, and thick security regime. Furthermore, it is evident that the role of exogenous aspects towards regional security is conditioned by the region’s endogenous processes. In the case of Southeast Asia, the region’s endogenous norms of ASEAN unity and peaceful resolution have thus far constrained any detrimental impacts of the South China Sea dispute towards regional amity.
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ItemRegional cooperation on food security: a comparison of ASEAN and the EU( 2016)The thesis examines how regional organisations in Europe and Southeast Asia have tackled threats to food security. It argues that challenges to food security have the potential to cause political instability, conflict and human suffering in the form of non-traditional security threats. The thesis seeks to contribute to the literature on comparative regional cooperation by focussing on food security as a non-traditional security threat. This thesis examines and compares how regional cooperation could ensure food security in the EU and ASEAN. Although Europe is currently ‘food secure’, the thesis examines how it tackled food insecurity following World War Two, the development of its food security-related policies and how it continues to work towards long-term food security in the region. Despite economic growth and development in Southeast Asia, food security remains a problem that could be alleviated through greater regional cooperation. The thesis compares ASEAN and the EU to assess how the two regional organisations developed processes, projects and products to tackle challenges to food security. It argues that regional organisations have the potential to achieve food security. It also explores the extent to which the EU and ASEAN might learn from each other’s experiences.
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ItemPolitical leadership in regional community-building: a comparative study of ASEAN and the EU( 2016)This thesis examines the role of political leadership in a regional context. It asks under which conditions political leadership constitutes a driver of regional community-building. In so doing, it reconceptualises the very idea of political leadership in order to examine its role in a regional context. Based on data collected during interviews, as well as document analysis of primary and secondary resources, this thesis proposes five explanatory factors crucial to the provision of political leadership: i) political will; ii) the capacity of individual leaders; iii) state capacity; iv) legitimacy; and v) summitry. This thesis examines the interaction of these five factors and seeks to determine the extent to which the differences and commonalities in these five factors are crucial to the provision of political leadership in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union (EU). The thesis also investigates whether these five factors have substantial implications for the past and current progress of these two regional bodies. The thesis finds that although political will plays a pivotal role, a comprehensive approach involving the aforementioned five explanatory factors, yields more nuanced understanding of the role of political leadership as a driver of regional community-building. This thesis makes an original contribution in two ways. Firstly, it develops a new analytical framework in order to understand political leadership in a regional context based on the above five explanatory factors. Secondly, the findings of this thesis fill a gap in the current literature on comparative regionalism by focusing on the determining factors of effectiveness in political leadership.