Ch. 23. Encompassing the AEC blueprint into ASEAN's subregional frameworks : A commentary / Gary P. Krishnan -- Theme 4. Socio-cultural. ch. 24. Population ageing in ASEAN : Prospects and implications / Kang Soon Hock and Yap Mui Teng. ch. 25. Making ASEAN relevant to the young / Diana Lee. ch. 26. ASEAN and human capital / Faizal Bin Yahya. ch. 27. The ASEAN quest for greater engagement and commitment / Braema Mathiaparanam -- Theme 5. External relations. ch. 28. Lao PDR's role in ASEAN-China trade ties / H.E. Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphavanh. ch. 29. ASEAN's diplomatic importance to China / Sheng Lijun. ch. 30. ASEAN as a mover of Asian regionalism / Akiko Fukushima. ch. 31. What I have always wondered about ASEAN : A perspective from ROK / Lee Sun-Jin. ch. 32. India's place and ASEAN's primacy in the New East Asia / P.S. Suryanarayana. ch. 33. Reflections on regionalism : The ASEAN journey / Simon Murdoch. ch. 34. ASEAN and Latin America : Time for a vibrant connectivity / Paulo Alberto da Silveira Soares. ch. 35. Building a strategic partnership : A review of relations between ASEAN and the ILO / Ng Gek-Boo -- Theme 6. The future. ch. 36. The future of ASEAN : Obsolescent or resilient? / Amitav Acharya. ch. 37. How Can ASEAN stay relevant? / Joergen Oerstroem Moeller. ch. 38. ASEAN into the future : Towards a better monitoring and evaluation of regional co-operation programmes / Azmi Mat Akhir. ch. 39. Strengthening the foundation for an ASEAN community / Wilfrido V. Villacorta

This book seeks to explain two core paradoxes associated with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): How have diverse states hung together and stabilized relations in the face of competing interests, divergent preferences, and arguably weak cooperation? How has a group of lesser, self-identified Southeast Asian powers gone beyond its original regional purview to shape the form and content of Asian Pacific and East Asian regionalisms? According to Alice Ba, the answers lie in ASEAN's founding arguments: arguments that were premised on an assumed regional disunity. She demonstrates how these arguments draw critical causal connections that make Southeast Asian regionalism a necessary response to problems, give rise to its defining informality and consensus-seeking process, and also constrain ASEAN's regionalism. Tracing debates about ASEAN's intra- and extra-regional relations over four decades, she argues for a process-driven view of cooperation, sheds light on intervening processes of argument and debate, and highlights interacting material, ideational, and social forces in the construction of regions and regionalisms.

This authoritative book provides a comprehensive political history of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the ten members of which are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Leading scholar Donald E. Weatherbee follows ASEAN from its inception in 1967, when it was founded with the goal of promoting peace, stability, security, and economic growth in the region. Throughout, a basic assumption of its leaders has been that the achievement of the first three conditions is necessary for the fourth. Weatherbee traces ASEAN’s three reinventions: in 1976, it made security a primary Cold War interest; in 1992, it refocused on economic integration; in 2007, it adopted the ASEAN Charter, which was the legal basis for the establishment of the ASEAN Community in 2015. He shows how at each stage of its development, ASEAN has dealt at three levels of action: the regional international order; intra-ASEAN relations; and the spillover of the domestic politics of member states into regional relations, particularly on questions of democracy and human rights. ASEAN’s greatest contemporary political challenge is in adapting to the regional impact of the US–China rivalry, particularly over South China Sea issues. For ASEAN to maintain its claim to centrality as a driving force in the regional security architecture, the author argues, a fourth reinvention may be required. Dispelling the myths surrounding the organization’s achievements fifty years after its founding, this book will be invaluable for all readers interested in ASEAN’s role in the broader Asia-Pacific region.

This study provides a structural analysis of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) role in Southeast Asia's regional development and conflict. Part I of the book concentrates on ASEAN's dispute management mechanism and applies Robert Fritz's theory of structural dynamics. It introduces the main structural factors influencing the organization's dispute management system and identifies avoidance and consensus building as the two central procedures. ASEAN's oscillation between success and failure is also discussed by identifying the root causes underlying the structural instability. How to overcome ASEAN's internal organization conflicts leading to oscillation through structural dynamics is also discussed. This section concludes by presenting a general overview of ASEAN's role in dealing with regional conflict through preventive diplomacy and possibly peace-building. Part II concentrates on socio-economic development and trade, providing an overview of socio-economic development in the region, as well as some important intra-regional trade barriers. It applies structural dynamics to the problem of economic and trade oscillation in ASEAN. Based on ASEAN's official goal of creating a socio-cultural community, Part III of the book tackles the structural conflicts present due to the region's diverse socio-cultural makeup. The complementary processes of avoidance and consensus building are presented as the central mechanisms through which ASEAN can construct shared norms and thus overcome inherent organizational conflicts. It also presents an overview of ASEAN's path towards a socio-cultural community through a structural lens. Part IV presents general conclusions and proposes possible future directions for further research. It ties together the previous three sections by providing an overview of ASEAN's future in the region's development and conflict.

On 28 July 2008, the ASEAN Studies Centre and the Regional Economic Studies Programme, both of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung organized a roundtable on The ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint. The brainstorming session gathered Southeast Asian experts from the region to discuss the AEC Blueprint, which ASEANs leaders had adopted at their summit meeting in November 2007, and the prospects of any obstacles to its implementation by the target year, 2015. The roundtable started with a progress report on the AEC Blueprint given by S. Pushpanathan, Principal Director of Economic Integration and Finance, ASEAN Secretariat, Jakarta. Thereafter, the sessions examined the various aspects of the Blueprint tackling the non-tariff barriers, designing a comprehensive ASEAN Investment Agreement, a regional framework for competition policy, the role of infrastructure development in economic integration, the importance of international production networks in economic integration, etc.

Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Examining how the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) has responded to external threats over the past 50 years, this book provides a compelling account of regional state actions and foreign policy in the face of potential sovereignty violation. The author draws on a large amount of previously unanalysed material, including declassified government documents and WikiLeaks cables, to examine four key cases since 1975. Taking into account state interests and the role of external powers, the author develops the ‘vanguard state theory’ to explain ASEAN state responses to sovereignty violation, which, it is argued, has universal applicability and explanatory power.