Performances of Trust: Ritualized Diplomacy in Southeast Asian Regionalism

Abstract

What happens when trust ends? This article identifies a hitherto overlooked possibility, a performance of trust. Comprising ritualized diplomacy, performances of trust communicate the products of trust, the values that define membership of an international organization, but do not constitute those values. Realizing the obscuring, subjunctive, orthopraxic, and located nature of these ritual performances helps distinguish performance from other social processes of identity and interest construction. Demonstrated in the context of Southeast Asian regionalism, performances of trust suggest the relevance of trust in explaining what states and their leaders say and do may outlive the presence of trust itself.