ASEAN was created more as an idea rather than a formal institution. This idea has permeated its members' behavior through the ASEAN way. All this success stems from the organization's construction process and the principles beneath it. This article's objective is to point out the importance ideas and values have in the leaders' decision-making process and that those ideas and values led them to implement foreign policies congruent with the integration process. Based on Malaysia, the argument put forward is that what oriented this process was not a simple economic motivation, but, besides this, was a full exercise of identity construction, based on internal and international political relations, that persists on up to-date.