Abstract
Over the past decade, the European Union has articulated increasingly explicit ambitions to act as a security provider in the Indo-Pacific. Southeast Asia constitutes a particularly revealing arena in which to assess this evolution, as the region sits at the geopolitical core of the Indo-Pacific while remaining anchored in ASEAN-centred security practices, non-alignment and sensitivity to external power projection. This article examines whether the EU’s expanding security engagement in Southeast Asia reflects genuine role learning, understood as a transformation of its international identity, or a more limited process of role adaptation within an essentially civilian and normative framework. Drawing on role theory, the analysis adopts a triadic approach linking role conception, role performance and role recognition. Empirically, it combines an examination of EU strategic documents and policy initiatives with elite perception data from regional surveys and a systematic analysis of ASEAN official statements and plans of action. The findings show that while the EU has broadened its security-relevant activities in the Indo-Pacific, these developments remain layered onto pre-existing civilian-oriented roles. As such, Southeast Asian actors continue to recognise the EU primarily as a normative and stabilising partner rather than as a provider of regional security. The article concludes that the EU’s trajectory in Southeast Asia is best understood as adaptive adjustment rather than deep role learning, highlighting the possibilities and limits of stretching a civilian role in a competitive Indo-Pacific order.