This study of the United Nations in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific evaluates the organization's role and performance in Cambodia and over refugees; regarding human rights, development, environment and the needs of women; within regional cooperation; and as an instrument of state policy. These cases illustrate how multilateral conduct through the United nations provides a barometer indicating the intensity with which policy initiatives and values are sustained by relevant governmental interests alike. In the regional settings considered, conduct towards and within the UN has amplified unresolved value differences regarding relations with major powers, sustainability, and national identity.

For half a century, ten dynamic nations in Southeast Asia have been implementing a shared vision of economic growth, sustainable development, and cultural progress. Today, the economies of those nations are linked inextricably with the future of greater Asia as well as with the United States and the other Western countries. With authoritarianism and protectionism on the rise around the world and the catastrophic effects of global warming making action urgent, the nations that form the Association of Southeast Asia Nations are more relevant and under greater political and social stress than ever. In these illuminating pages, David Carden, the first American resident ambassador to ASEAN, paints a vivid portrait of the regional and global cooperation required to meet today, and interconnected future. Carden takes us behind the scenes as the leaders of these ten nations work to prepare their countries and their region for the 21st century. Carden persuasively argues that the unfolding story of the ASEAN nations is a story for the entire worldthat we are all increasingly interdependent and confronted with the existential need to solve the same set of challenges.

Know Your ASEAN sets down, in clear and simple language, the basic facts about the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. It does so in the form of 40 questions and their answers. This is the second edition of the booklet that was among the contributions of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies to the observance of the 40th anniversary of ASEAN's founding on 8 August 1967. The booklet provides facts on ASEAN's establishment, membership, financing and decision-making. It recalls the association's contributions to regional security. It explains what ASEAN is doing to integrate the regional economy and promote regional cooperation on the environment, infectious diseases, counter-terrorism, poverty reduction and natural disasters. It clarifies such issues as non-interference and human rights. It touches on ASEAN's relations with other countries and international institutions. Since the first edition was published in 2007, many developments have taken place in ASEAN and Southeast Asia, including the adoption of the ASEAN Charter. Hence, the need for an updated version of the text. Through this booklet and their other work, ISEAS and its ASEAN Studies Centre hope to contribute to the expansion of public understanding about ASEAN, recognizing the fact that regional solidarity, integration and cooperation are possible only with sufficient public support. As in the first edition, the publications design and cartoons are by Miel, the award-winning Senior Executive Artist and leading cartoonist of the Straits Times.