There are three pillars of collaborative actions within the ASEAN community: political-
security, economy, and sociocultural domains. Disaster management is under the third
pillar. This is perhaps due to the fact that natural disasters are regarded as a threat to
human security, and that they affect mainly the sociocultural foundations of a nation.
Through the concept of the socio-cultural pillar, ASEAN has initiated several
coordinative activities in an integrated fashion across the region. However, the question
has been raised whether disaster related issues also fall under the first pillar, as
environmental problems are a non-traditional form of security threat. A review of
ASEAN documentation shows that several military and civilian-military operations
were conducted as disaster relief and recovery measures within the emergency team.