A central concern of this book is to explore the issue of “identity” in the international relations of Southeast Asia. The term “identity” is understood here as “regional identity”, and is examined with specific reference to two basic propositions. The first holds that the international relations of Southeast Asia have much to do with conscious attempts by the region's leaders (with some help from outside scholars and policy-makers) to “imagine”, delineate, and organize its political, economic, social and strategic space. In this sense, politics among the states of Southeast Asia may be understood as a quest for common identity in the face of the region's immense diversity and myriad countervailing forces, including the ever-present danger of intraregional conflict and the divisive impact of extraregional actors and events. The second proposition holds that regional cooperation, in various conceptions and guises, has played a central role in shaping the modern Southeast Asian identity. By seeking to limit external influences and by developing a regulatory framework for managing interstate relations, regional cooperation has made the crucial difference between the forces of conflict and harmony that lie at the core of the international relations of Southeast Asia.

By emphasizing the idea of “region”, this book seeks to overcome what John Legge once described as “the almost universal tendency of historians to focus on the constituent parts of Southeast Asia rather than to develop a perception of the region as a whole as a suitable object of study.” While some historians have now overcome this tendency (notably Anthony Reid in his two-volume Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce and Nicholas Tarling in his Nations and States in Southeast Asia), regional perspectives on Southeast Asian politics and international relations remain scarce. Scholarly works on the foreign policies of individual Southeast Asian states, as well as studies of regional security and regional political economy, are often undertaken without regard to the question of what constitutes the region and its identity. Through the analysis of the international relations of Southeast Asia, this book seeks to ascertain whether there are regional patterns and characteristics that could validate or negate Southeast Asia's claim to be a region.