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ASEAN at a Crossroads?
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13584 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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4 / 1988 |
4,082 Words |
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Dalton A. West
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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) came into being in 1967 during the heat of battle in Indochina and with a legacy of tense and volatile relations among its members. The five original members--Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand (now six with the addition of Brunei in 1984)--survived severe tests against all odds in its first years of existence. Today its members are generally prospering--some more than others--to the extent that they have emerged as important elements in the crucible of Asia-Pacific economics and geopolitics.
In their own right, the countries in the association represent major markets and sources of raw materials for the United States as well as for many of America's friends and allies. Furthermore, ASEAN states form the land bridge over one of the world's vitally important oceanic crossroads--the meeting place of the South China Sea and the Indian and Pacific oceans--through which passes some of the most important global shipping. In these same waters are found a treasure trove of maritime resources--fish, fuel, and minerals--many of them, unfortunately, in hotly disputed territorial zones.
American fortunes are increasingly tied to countries in the area, and from a broad Western perspective, a healthy, dynamic, peaceful ASEAN is central to prospects for a stable, modernizing Asia-Pacific region. It is probably not an overstatement to suggest that as ASEAN goes, so goes the emerging Pacific Basin Community concept.
As the ASEAN community enters its third decade, the association faces challenges as severe as any in the past. In a climate of a protracted economic slowdown and an increasingly hostile international economic environment, the association's heads of government met in Manila in December 1987--only the third such summit since ASEAN was formed.
Going into the summit, the leaders of ASEAN were well aware of both the obstacles to and the opportunities for further development. Most recognized the necessity of consolidating ASEAN's solid political achievements through substantive economic measures. Despite this, the meeting yielded few definitive options for new forms of cooperation, and some vital reform issues were not discussed at all.
A successor generation is moving into place in ASEAN government ranks, a new leadership for whom the tribulations of early statehood and direct challenges to national existence are being replaced by equally important issues and choices involving national and regional development priorities. It is not clear, however, how this younger leadership will assume power and with what results.
Regional cooperation
The establishment of ASEAN was preceded by a period of domestic turmoil, intraregional conflicts, and the growing involvement of outside powers, either directly or indirectly in regional affairs. The use, or threatened use, of military force as a means to resolve disputes was the general rule in Indochina in the late 1960s.
In large measure as a reaction to the use of force in international affairs, the Bangkok Declaration of August 1967 affirmed wide-ranging regional cooperation on a host of concerns, of which military security
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