in order to achieve these goals, the regional's leaders first had to create a stable environment for such development and economic progress to take place. it is with these state interests in mind that, in the wake of independence and through to the time of ASEAN's formation, several multilateral initiatives were launched.while these early and often abortive attempts at regionalism were designed to address and constrain challenges to Southeast asian security, they also reflected an underlying recognition of the necessity for some form of institutional cooperation to tackle these challenges