Flagships and Activities of ASEAN-ISIS

ARF Inter-Sessional Support Group on Confidence Building Measures and

Preventive Diplomacy

Helsinki, 28-30 March 2007

By Malayvieng Sakonhninhom
Acting Director-General of IFA
Chair of ASEAN-ISIS

Introduction

ASEAN-ISIS is a short form for ASEAN Institutes for Strategic and International Studies.
When ASEAN-ISIS was officially formed and registered with the ASEAN Secretariat in 1988, it
was a small group composed of only five institutes of the original ASEAN members. Later in 1995,
the ASEAN-ISIS admitted the Institute of International Relations (IIR) of Vietnam as a new
member, followed by Cambodia Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP) in 1997, and the Lao
Institute of Foreign Affairs (IFA) in 1999. While the individuals from Brunei Darussalam, affiliated
with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have been participating in ASEAN-ISIS for a number of years,
it was officially a member of ASEAN-ISIS in 2000, following the establishment of the Brunei
Darussalam Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (BDIPSS)1. Therefore, this expansion makes
ASEAN-ISIS much larger. However, ASEAN-ISIS is still facing a challenge to include Myanmar
Institute for Strategic and International Studies as a membership.

ASEAN-ISIS is a key actor in the birth and development of a process that has come to be
known as Track 2 diplomacy in the region. This Track 2 diplomacy is the conduct of policy
dialogue among government officials, think tanks, researchers and other policy analysts and
practitioners in their private capacity on various issues of the economic, political-security, and the
social.

Over the past decade, ASEAN-ISIS has gone through and overcome many challenges and
received a number of significant achievements. This brief paper will summarize the picture of
flagships and achievements of ASEAN-ISIS and then its challenges.

1
Hadi Soesastro, Clara Joewono and Carolina Hernandez (2006), Introduction, in Hadi Soestro, Clara Joewono &
Carolina G. Hernandez (eds.), Twenty Two Years of ASEAN ISIS: Origin, Evolution and Challenges of Track Two
Diplomacy, ASEAN ISIS: CSIS.

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 Flagships and Achievements of ASEAN-ISIS

The main objectives of ASEAN-ISIS are (1) to cooperate among ASEAN think tanks to
strengthen research development on strategic and international problems of the region and
ASEAN’s cooperation, and (2) to cooperate and strengthen cooperation with other think tanks in the
region and research institutions outside ASEAN and the world to strengthen peace and development
in the region and to contribute to the world order and peace as a whole.

It has to be recognized that ASEAN-ISIS has played a significant role in contributing to the
management of regional order and security challenges in Southeast Asia and beyond. The power of
ideas has been the key element of ASEAN-ISIS’ contribution in this regard2. This can be observed
through the development of ASEAN-ISIS from the beginning. When ASEAN-ISIS was officially
launched in 1988, it was conceived as a regional non-governmental association at producing policy
inputs for consideration by governments and decision-makers in ASEAN countries. During almost
two decades, ASEAN-ISIS has established itself as a very important Track 2 network recognized by
the governments of ASEAN countries. Regular meetings between ASEAN-ISIS heads and senior
officials of ASEAN member states are a good example3. Acting as “Track 2”, ASEAN-ISIS
provides policy inputs to their respective Track 1 by organizing regional workshops, meetings,
conferences, seminars, etc. It provides venues for experts and scholars in various fields related to
regional peace and security to meet and exchange views with each other as well as with their
respective government officials, civil society groups in order to reach the aim of mutual
understanding among various sectors in the region regarding common concerns.

It is significant to recognize that among these important venues, some have become the
“flagship activities” of ASEAN-ISIS namely the Asia Pacific Roundtable (APR) for Confidence
Building and Conflict Resolution, the ASEAN-ISIS Colloquium on Human Rights (AICOHR), and
the ASEAN People’s Assembly (APA). These three important flagships, for example, are to carry
the basic ideals and missions of ASEAN-ISIS to promote open and inclusive exchanges to come up

2
Rizal Sukma (2006), ASEAN ISIS and Political-Security Cooperation in Asia-Pacific, in Hadi Soestro, Clara
Joewono & Carolina G. Hernandez (eds.), Twenty Two Years of ASEAN ISIS: Origin, Evolution and Challenges of
Track Two Diplomacy, ASEAN ISIS: CSIS.
3
Suchit Bunbongkarn (2006), The Future of ASEAN ISIS, in Hadi Soestro, Clara Joewono & Carolina G. Hernandez
(eds.), Twenty Two Years of ASEAN ISIS: Origin, Evolution and Challenges of Track Two Diplomacy, ASEAN ISIS:
CSIS.

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with innovative ideas that will help to enhance peace, security, prosperity and the well being of the
peoples in the region.

APR is known as the largest security forum for the Asia-Pacific region of Track 2 and it is
arguably the most important venue which brings together experts, think tanks, policy study
institutes, and policy makers from Asia-Pacific and beyond in the informal, friendly and frank
environment annually in Malaysia to discuss the major security issues and challenges confronting
the region and produce new ideas and proposals for cooperation on security issue. This year,
ASEAN-ISIS will convene its 21st APR.

APA has also been organized with the engagement of a wide range of civil society
organizations, non-governmental organizations and people’s organizations. It is shown that APA is
significant because it is possible for a Track 2 initiative to get the endorsement of NGOs and civil
society organizations in the region or what is called “Track 3” actors into the discussion. It is
annually organized in the Philippines and this year will be the 6th APA meeting.

AICOHR has been one of the three important activities of ASEAN-ISIS. It is a testimony to
the role played by ASEAN-ISIS in identifying issues of policy concerned to ASEAN, and the
intellectual contributions it provides to the political discussion on security and development in
Southeast Asia. It is organized to illustrate the difficulties confronting Track 2 mechanisms in
affecting change in the region, especially on issues of great sensitivities such as human rights4. The
year 2007 will be the 14th meeting of AICOHR.

In addition, ASEAN-ISIS heads have regular exchange views and opinions on issues of
concerns and initiatives raised in the region. ASEAN-ISIS has also actively contributed to the
generation of an ASEAN Charter which in principle the leaders have agreed to consider for the
region. ASEAN-ISIS also promotes regular meeting of ASEAN. Moreover, some ASEAN-ISIS
members have also actively cooperated with other East Asian institutes and universities and beyond
in conducting joint researches, and organizing meetings and conferences to exchange and discuss on
different issues of the region.

Challenges

4
Herman Joseph S. Kraft (2006), ASEAN-ISIS and Human Rights Adocacy: The Colloquium on Human Rights
(AICOHR), in Hadi Soestro, Clara Joewono & Carolina G. Hernandez (eds.), Twenty Two Years of ASEAN ISIS:
Origin, Evolution and Challenges of Track Two Diplomacy, ASEAN ISIS: CSIS.

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 ASEAN-ISIS has been organized as a fundamental institution in decision making of
ASEAN. It has contributed its ideas, time and efforts in promoting dialogues, consultations,
networking and coordination and cooperation, as well as promoting the ASEAN way of thinking to
solve common areas of concerns. ASEAN-ISIS has played an important and active role in providing
policy inputs not only into the ASEAN process, but also into the process of security cooperation in
the region and beyond. However, as ASEAN-ISIS is a think tanks, it is unavoidable facing a series
of challenges, particularly on funding and the capacity of new ASEAN-ISIS think tanks.

Undoubtedly, financial constraint is one of the most important issues concerning the
development of ASEAN-ISIS. It is significant to recognize that while some institutes of ASEAN-
ISIS received governmental funding, the vast majority of funding, particularly for conferences,
publication and advocacy activities is from agencies and foundations outside the region. Therefore,
without financial supports from international organizations and agencies, the development of
ASEAN-ISIS activities can be affected. Consequently, this can lead to the dependency of the
institutions.

Capacity of the institutes is also concerned challenge. The component units of the ASEAN-
ISIS are very dramatically in their composition, size, capacity, resources, political and social
context, as well as their domestic and regional impacts. While some ASEAN-ISIS members,
particularly the original members, are independent think tanks with their own financial supports and
able to express themselves freer, other members, especially the new members still affiliate with
their governments. Particularly, BDIPSS of Brunei, IFA Laos, and IIR Vietnam, are one of the
departments and agency in their ministries. There are thus often rotations of key staff in their
institutes. Some of them have limited staffing and competence qualification. Moreover, these
institutions still depend mainly on the governmental financial supports.

Conclusions
It is important that ASEAN-ISIS is considered as the think tank for ASEAN in producing
innovative ideas for policy makers. Since ASEAN-ISIS launched, it has convened a series of
meetings and conferences which have created opportunities as forum for discussion, exchange of
ideas not only with the government officials, but also with other Track 2. It is also successful in
bringing Track 3 actors to join in the discussion. However, although ASEAN-ISIS has reached
tremendous achievements, it has gone through several problems and difficulties and of course it is
unavoidable remaining of future challenges to accomplish its activities as Track 2. Yet, ASEAN-
ISIS seeks to undertake the following missions in the near future:

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 1. to conduct activities that would build on what it has accomplished in the past in the decision
making process of ASEAN, in community building and the building of social capital in the
think tank community.
2. to enhance the quality of its policy recommendations to official decision makers through
rigorous policy researchers as much as feasible.
3. to institute value-added components to its existing conference programs by organizing them
around individuals or joint researches.
4. to facilitate the admission of Myanmar ISIS to have a full Southeast Asian house of think
tanks in ASEAN-ISIS.
5. To deepen and widen the habit of cooperation established among them and their existing
circles through activities such as timely and relevant joint researches, other and related
activities involving various sectors, including other non-governmental sectors not yet part of
their networks.
6. to enhance its institutional relationship with ASEAN through closer cooperation with the
ASEAN Secretary General and the ASEAN Secretariat by conducting policy dialogues with
them, as well as undertaking research and other activities in relevant and priority areas5.

5
Adapted from Hernandez, ‘ASEAN ISIS at the Turn of the Century: A Mission Statement”, in Hernandez “Track two
and Regional Policy: The ASEAN-ISIS in ASEAN Decision Making, in in Hadi Soestro, Clara Joewono & Carolina G.
Hernandez (eds.), Twenty Two Years of ASEAN ISIS: Origin, Evolution and Challenges of Track Two Diplomacy,
ASEAN ISIS: CSIS.