A Study on the Transformation of Regional Security Governance in Southeast Asia from the Perspective of the Holistic Security Concept — From Conceptual Innovation to Practical Paths

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the ongoing restructuring of the power structure and intensifying major-power competition in the Asia-Pacific region, the formation of regional order increasingly reflects the combined effects of multiple forms of power in institutionalized interactions. As a regional organization dominated by small and medium-sized states, ASEAN has long maintained its central position in regional cooperation despite lacking traditional material advantages. Relational power theory posits that power arises from the control and management of relational resources in the interactions between actors, and the strength of relations is not necessarily determined unilaterally by material capabilities. By building a regional relational network with itself as the hub, ASEAN has accumulated and exercised relatively stable relational power in multilateral interactions. The ASEAN Way embodies this logic of relational governance. Through consensus-building, non-confrontational engagement and procedural inclusiveness, the ASEAN Way continuously shapes the agenda-setting approaches, interaction rules and behavioral expectations of regional cooperation. In the political and security domains, the ASEAN Way is not static adherence to the principle of non-interference, but dynamically adjusted under the logic of risk assessment and relational management to preserve organizational unity and regional stability. Relevant practical experience demonstrates that through institutional design, strategic restraint, reciprocal arrangements and norm construction, ASEAN has to some extent established a regional cooperation framework centered on itself, showing the possibility for weaker states to shape regional interaction structures via relational power. At the same time, the relational power underpinned by the ASEAN Way remains constrained by external intervention and internal divergences, and its influence on regional order is distinctly conditional.