东盟的规范性影响力及其在南海问题中的作用

ASEAN’s Normative Influence and Its Application to the South China Sea Issue

近年来,尽管中国与其他南海主权声索国的双边主权争议升级、中美之间围绕南海的地缘政治竞争加剧,但南海区域的合作安全规范却日益机制化,并具有了一定的韧性。作者认为,东盟的规范性影响力在其中发挥了重要作用。规范性影响力指权力关系中弱势的一方寻求潜移默化地影响对象国,使其在对自身利益做出重新评估的基础上逐步接受、认可规范并主动做出改变以适应新的身份,对象国的新身份又成为推动施动者继续发挥影响的动力。在南海问题上存在着三种主导规范,即声索国主张的主权规范、东盟主张的合作安全规范和美国主张的被政治化的航行自由规范。东盟借助(去)议题化、持续沟通和实践危机的机制,促使声索国将由主权规范主导的岛礁争议与区域安全秩序的构建区分开来,缓冲了域外力量将航行自由规范政治化的压力,推动了合作安全规范在区域互动实践的落实和内化。虽然东盟的规范性影响力存在明显局限,但中国有必要支持其对维护区域安全秩序的积极贡献。

Of late,while bilateral territorial disputes between China and South China Sea(SCS)claimants escalate and Sino-US geopolitical competition intensifies,the cooperative security norm has been increasingly institutionalized and become resilient among regional countries.What explains this relative stability despite bilateral and structural uncertainties surrounding the SCS issue?And what are the mechanisms driving this outcome?This paper argues that ASEAN’s normative influence has played significant roles in it.Normative influence refers to a lesser actor’s intent on softly influencing its target countries and their self-identification by the norms it believes in through non-coercive means and on the basis of the latter’s reevaluation of interests;the latter’s new identification further drives the former to play greater roles in the normative arena.Three norms are important in the SCS issue,including the sovereign norm insisted by SCS claimant states,the cooperative security norm supported by ASEAN,and the politicized freedom of navigation norm held by the United States.Utilizing(de-)issuization,consistent communication and practice with crisis,ASEAN has convinced SCS claimant states to separate the construction of regional security order from bilateral sovereign disputes,prevented geopolitical competition at the system level from spilling over to the regional level and ensured the neutralization of the norm of freedom of navigation,and facilitated the norm of cooperative security to dominate the regional security order construction.Despite its limitation,the positive role of ASEAN’s normative influence in constructing regional security order is worth China’s welcome and support.