ASEAN’s Non-Interference and Divergent Responses to Crises in Member States: Comparing Thailand (2014), Myanmar (2017), and Myanmar (2021)

초록

Non-interference is a foundational principle of ASEAN regionalism, yet ASEAN has responded differently to similar crises. It remained silent after Thailand’s 2014 military coup, offered only humanitarian assistance during the 2017 Rakhine crisis, and excluded Myanmar’s junta leaders after the 2021 coup. This article argues that the variation reflects perceived threats to ASEAN’s institutional legitimacy, which it conceptualizes as comprising three dimensions (credibility, unity, and centrality), and compares the three crises through process tracing. ASEAN remains silent when legitimacy costs are low, adopts limited engagement when only some dimensions are challenged, and departs from non-interference when all three are threatened at once, a pattern consistent with ASEAN’s own characterization of the Myanmar crisis in October 2021 as a threat to its unity, credibility, and centrality. By treating these dimensions as distinct, the article develops a general explanatory model of when regional organizations uphold, reinterpret, or depart from non- interference.

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