India-ASEAN Relations: The Utility and Limits of a Norm-Based Approach
| Published date | 01 April 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208817231162272 |
| Author | Chris Ogden |
| Date | 01 April 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Research Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/00208817231162272
International Studies
60(2) 155 –175, 2023
© 2023 Jawaharlal Nehru University
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DOI: 10.1177/00208817231162272
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Research Article
India-ASEAN Relations:
The Utility and Limits
of a Norm-Based
Approach
Chris Ogden 1
Abstract
Central to India–ASEAN relations have been a consistent equivalence between
their similar core principles and outlooks, which have served as a shared value-
based footing upon which the two entities have built and enhanced their relations.
These underlying sets of norms inform their diplomatic dealings with each other,
and stem from principles and practices critical to their foundational identities
and experiences. This article investigates and evaluates the historical roots of
these norms and then utilizes them as an analytical vehicle with which to trace
the growing strategic convergence typifying present-day India–ASEAN relations.
Drawing upon constructivist accounts that emphasize the role played by history,
culture, identity and learning, the article considers the key areas of agreement
in relations, and how a value-based form of analysis provides an essential lens
through which to better understand material factors structuring their relations.
It also underlines the analytical value and empirical richness that a norm-based
approach provides for analyzing specific sets of norms in a specific state-to-
multilateral interaction.
Keywords
India, ASEAN, constructivism, norms, narratives
Celebrating 30 years of dialogue relations in 2022, India and ASEAN ties are
arguably stronger than they ever have been. Encompassing ever closer links
within the realms of economics, security cooperation and development, their
highly important strategic partnership is closely binding together the regions of
South Asia and South-East Asia. Central to this relationship has been an initial—
and ongoing—equivalence between their similar core principles and outlooks,
1 School of International Relations, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland
Corresponding author:
Chris Ogden, School of International Relations, The Scores, University of St Andrews, St Andrews,
Fife, KY16 9AX, Scotland.
E-mail: cco2@st-andrews.ac.uk
156 International Studies 60(2)
which have served as a shared value-based footing upon which the two entities
have built and enhanced their relations. These underlying sets of norms inform
and temper their diplomatic dealings with each other, and stem from principles
and practices critical to the foundational identities of both India and ASEAN. In
particular, these norms ‘play a crucial role in determining … interests and provide
a subjective set of preferences formed by domestic context and external conditions’
(Ogden, 2017b, p. xviii), and are worthy of analysis to better conceptualize India–
ASEAN ties. They also have a real-world significance, whereby the India–
ASEAN partnership is argued by its elites to be ‘founded on congruent ideas and
a common vision of the region and the world, under-pinned by strong civilizational
linkages through the millennia’ (Krishna quoted in MEA, 2012, p. 413).
This article explores the utility of deploying norm-based analytical approaches
from the field of International Relations by uncovering, examining and evaluating
these common values and outlooks, primarily through the theoretical lens of
constructivism. Such a theoretical perspective emphasizes the importance of
history, experience and learning in the formation of values and identities, which
act as the ‘building blocks of international life’ (Snyder, 2004, p. 60). These
factors then engrain specific norms that ‘imply a particular set of interests or
preferences … with respect to particular actors, … (showing how a) state
understands others according to the identity it attributes to them, while
simultaneously reproducing its own identity through daily social practice’ (Hopf,
1998, p. 175). Within the context of inter-relations between India and ASEAN,
norms in our analysis are further defined as ‘intersubjective beliefs about the
social and natural world that define actors, their situations and the possibilities of
action’ (Wendt, 1995, pp. 73–74). Collectively, sets of these norms then produce
‘a matrix of intellectual and emotional bases’ (Jones, 2006, pp. 28–29) that provide
value-based guidance concerning a specific relationship within a specific setting,
which for us here is that of contemporary and historical India–ASEAN relations.
Notably, this norm-centred approach informs the dominant understandings that
typify India–ASEAN relations but does not seek to preclude or ignore where their
interactions at times result in significant divergences.
Using this approach will allow us to question whether or not the security
perspectives of both India and ASEAN can be seen to rest upon particular shared
sets of norms specific to their international interaction, and the extent to which
these norms orientate their joint policy preferences. It will also underscore how
international affairs take place ‘between various political agents (including
individuals with specific needs and wants) and structures formed by social
relationships’ (Lanteigne, 2013, p. 1), via an approach that encompasses several
generations of political leaders and parties. This virtue permits a longitudinal
analytical timeframe rather than looking solely at present-day interactions, and
thus draws out the longstanding norms in India–ASEAN relations that act as
deep-seated and constraining social ‘incentives which shape their behavior’
(Katzenstein, 1996, p. 22). To unveil these norms, this article looks at the
interaction between India and ASEAN over the past 50 years as recorded in the
various meetings, dialogues, treaties and agreements between their leaders, and
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