Formal frameworks, informal practices
How Asean navigates the crisis in multilateralism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7172178 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sarah Teo (0000-0002-2557-6730, Nanyang Technological University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 46 |
| Issue | 15 |
| Pages | 1942-1958 |
| Publication date | 2025-10-13 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Third World Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0143-6597 • E-ISSN: 1360-2241 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01436597.2025.2561195 |
| OpenAlex | W4414560990 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 25 |
This article examines how the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has drawn on its blend of formal frameworks and informal practices to navigate the fragmentation in regional multilateralism. It identifies the crisis in ASEAN multilateralism along three key dimensions: the limitations of ASEAN’s convening power and normative influence; its ineffectiveness and inefficiencies in managing regional security issues; and, the rise of non-ASEAN-led platforms for cooperation. The article argues that ASEAN has adopted formal frameworks in responding to the challenges facing ASEAN multilateralism, yet the practices shaping these frameworks remain grounded in informality. The analysis employs a framework that reframes the distinction between formality and informality in intergovernmental organisations, based on the motivations underpinning each approach. Applying this framework to ASEAN’s approaches to the Myanmar coup in February 2021 and the rise of the Indo-Pacific narrative since the late 2010s – both of which are reflective of the crisis in ASEAN multilateralism – the article illustrates how the regional organisation harnesses this paradoxical combination of formality and informality to navigate a challenging multilateral landscape
Formality · Latin Americans · Multilateralism · Narrative · Normative · Regionalism (politics) · Soft power · Underpinning · International Development and Aid · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Peacebuilding and International Security
Southeast Asia in Search of an Asean Community
The Origins of Informality
Organization without delegation
Regional Security in Southeast Asia
Contested informality in regional institutional design
Practicing Peace
The UN and the multilateral system are in crisis – what the Global South must do
A critical evaluation of rationalist IR in the analysis of informal institutions
The disturbance and endurance of norms in Asean
Beyond the Weak Link
Is Asean powerful? Neo-realist versus constructivist approaches to power in Southeast Asia 1
Ideas, identity, and institution‐building
Elite role conceptions and Indonesia’s agency in the Asean Outlook on the Indo-Pacific
A community of practice
Are there still shared values to sustain multilateralism? Discourse in World Trade Organization reform debates
Understanding the Institutional Challenge of Indo-Pacific Minilaterals to Asean
The Asean Charter
The Asean way and the changing security environment
Why States Act through Formal International Organizations
Cooperation under autonomy
Sociability in International Politics
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |