Institutional Overlap in the Disaster Relief Regime Complex: The Case of ASEAN and the ADPC

This study investigates disaster management in Southeast Asia by examining the institutional dynamics between two regional international organizations (IOs): the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC). It analyzes the drivers and consequences of their overlap, which emerged from ASEAN’s expansion into disaster management via a formal agreement—the AADMER—and the creation of an operational arm—the AHA Centre—to carry it out. The analysis reveals substantial overlap in policy scope and governance functions, with more modest yet meaningful overlap in membership and funding. However, this overlap declined in the 2010s as the ADPC began to reorient its mandate and objectives. We theorize that ASEAN member states were prompted to create a formal regional disaster relief mechanism in response to increasingly frequent and costly disasters. Rather than relying on the ADPC, they opted to strengthen ASEAN’s institutional role due to its greater authority and member states’ like-mindedness. We further argue that the ADPC’s institutional misfit—rather than ideological or normative divergence—resulted in differentiation, coordination, and collaboration. Empirical findings support these claims, demonstrating how institutional design and strategic considerations shape IO overlap and its consequences in the disaster relief regime complex.