Creating Asean’s Climate Security Architecture

Sep 26, 2026 | Glenn S. Banaguas
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As one of the world’s most ecologically vulnerable regions, Southeast Asia faces unprecedented exposure to anthropogenically-driven climate disruptions. These environmental stressors do not exist in a vacuum; rather, they function as nonlinear threat multipliers that compound existing socioeconomic vulnerabilities, strain state capacity and threaten regional stability. An effective regional policy demands a comprehensive blueprint for an integrated Asean Climate Security Program. By synthesizing the principles of environmental peace-building, human security and disaster risk reduction, such a framework articulates a multilayered governance model designed to institutionalize climate resilience across the political-security, economic and sociocultural pillars of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).