​This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Despite being half a century old, questions around ASEAN's identity and, specifically, its status as an organization for collective security, remains unanswered. Today, scholars of international relations remain divided in how they perceive ASEAN, and how to classify the inter-governmental organization, whether this regional order could rise to the definition of a "collective security community". This article seeks to provide an objective, deliberate reading of the two arguments. The author will seek to determine which of the two descriptions fits reality more closely.