Cooperative regime building in the Malacca Strait

What is it about?

This paper considers the 2007 Co-operative Mechanism of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore (CMS) as a case study in cooperative regime building and raises questions about both timing and event-driven explanations. It draws attention to both a post-World War II developmental context and historical process involving past commitments and prior conceptualizations and their roles in producing the co-operative practices and expectations that constitute the CMS. It also sheds light on how that context bears on the roles played by particular non-state actors.

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Why is it important?

The Co-operative Mechanism of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore offers an alternative model of governance and regime building that challenges conventional characterisations of “regional governance” – what it looks like, its defining concerns, and its leading actors. The paper's key finding is that both developmental context and historical, path dependent processes matter in explaining the structure and process of the CMS. The role played by a non-state actor in shaping the distinctive mix of states, industry, non-state foundations and institutions and their varied obligations/contributions that constitutes the CMS also compels greater attention to the local and developmental contexts in which non-state actors operate.