Overall, non-compliance with the “ASEAN way” has been too common, and external influences too strong, to support the community idea. While ASEAN’s external cohesion has been impressive, the same con not be said about adherence to due process in decision-making or the existence of a shared policy outlook. The norms of the “ASEAN way” have by far not played the role for co-operation that observers have often attributed to them. Consensus has repeatedly been the function of external pressure and not the result of gradually converging junctures-and hence its success-has rested on internal agreement about two pillars of ASEAN policy: first, all ASEAN leaders have pursued the vision of a united Southeast Asia; secondly, all members have shared the resolve to defend the principles of the Treaty of Amity and Co-operation. The norms of non-interference, respect for sovereignty, peaceful resolution of conflict, and non-use of force circumscribe a mimimal but immensely important set of rules for the conduct of regional relations. Beyond agreement on those tenets of state inter-action, the lack of a shared vision has been able to reconcile the aspiration in SEANWFZ, with a perception of strategic needs that has led to the persistent involvement of great powers. Those documents have exerted influence on the discursive but not on the policy level.