Constructing a Security Community in Southeast Asia

Reviews / Votes

Review for the first edition:


'This is a superb study of ASEAN and the main issues that it faces. Acharya provides great insight into key episodes in ASEAN's development with thorough research and cogent analysis...This book must now be considered the authoritative text on the subject of regional organization in Southeast Asia. One hopes the author will consider a second edition in the not too distant future.' - Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia and Oceania


"innovative and stimulating?the theoretical and empirical sophistication that Acharya displays makes this book sure to be a key work on the security and political aspects of ASEAN for academics and policymakers...a vivid and cutting-edge work" - American Political Science Review


"Acharya's book stands as a major contribution to the ongoing Asian security debate and contributes substantially to the quality of that debate's policy analysis." - Survival


"an invaluable resource for every student of the region." - Pacific Affairs


"This is a wise book. It is written with an attention to norms and identities that should make it more accessible, and of greater interest, to the area studies community than is usual with the regional security literature. And the author expresses judgments that challenge analysts in Southeast Asia itself to consider seriously what can be done to chart a new course for the region and its flagship organization." - Journal of Asian Studies


"copiously researched and cogently argued?no serious student of Asia-Pacific affairs can afford to ignore." - The Hindu (India)


"Among the scholars writing on the interface between international relations theory and Asian security, one of the most prolific and highly regarded is Amitav Acharya whose work on Asian regional security institutions is particularly prized. Constructing a Security Community in Southeast Asia continues to burnish his reputation for applying theoretical constructs to regional policy outcomes." - Contemporary Southeast Asia


"a comprehensive and convincing evaluation of the effect of norms of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on its member states?a scrupulously fair account of ASEAN's development." - International Journal


"a fascinating and important book which advances out understanding of regional security on a number of fronts?Acharya provides an empirically rich analysis of ?ASEAN?Regional specialists will find a great deal to mull over in this nuanced and compelling analysis." - Pacific Review


"In the voluminous but traditionally atheoretical field of ASEAN studies, Acharya's agenda is refreshingly ambitious." Donald K. Ememrson, "Security, Community, and Democracy in Southeast Asia: Analyzing ASEAN," - Japanese Journal of Political Science (August 2005)


"This groundbreaking study illuminates brilliantly ASEAN's novel approach to issues of national and international security. Theoretically sophisticated and contextually grounded, Amitav Acharya is the rare scholar who succeeds fully in engaging intellectually both security and area specialists." - Peter J. Katzenstein, Cornell University, USA.


"Acharya has written one of the best, most interesting and comprehensive studies on ASEAN and offers a compelling rationale for the security community approach to international relations. It will be required reading for scholars interested in regional security and, particularly, in the role that norms and collective identity play in the onset of peaceful change." - Emanuel Adler, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and University of Toronto