Militarising counterterrorism in Southeast Asia: Incompatibilities and implications for ASEAN

The occupation of the city of Marawi in the southern Philippines and a series of terrorist attacks in Indonesia which followed it demonstrate that terrorism is a persistent and enduring threat to Southeast Asian security, despite the governments' concerted efforts on countering terrorism since 9/11 and the Bali Bombings in 2002 and 2005. Security specialists and defence officials in the region believe that ASEAN has to intensify its cooperation to address the challenge of terrorism through the use of military forces. This article, however, claims that the militarised counterterrorism has no institutional, normative and practical basis within ASEAN's main security structure, the APSC. This is followed by dual implications for the broader security agendas, affecting democratisation and sharpening mistrust among ASEAN states which challenges ASEAN centrality in regional security affairs.