The paper argues that a security community remains an object
rather than a reality among the Association of South East Asian
Nations (ASEAN) countries. This notwithstanding, ASEAN
institutions, processes and structures in the security regime have
multiplied manifold over its 38 years of existence. Theoretical work
on ASEAN suggests that a realist-institutional understanding of
ASEAN should now be supplanted by what could be called "statecentric constructivism". However, the paper argues that such a
theoretical development fails to fully account for the political
construction of a security community based on some measure of
civil society engagement albeit in the highly state-driven ASEAN
formation. It is the understanding of this writer that the agency for
change emanating from civil society forces still remains generally
under-theorised
