Retaining regional unity will be crucial. In a world of growing pessimism and tribalism, where the unknown is feared and the foreign is treated with skepticism, ASEAN is a laboratory of diversity. Sign in. Forgot your password? Password recovery. Recover your password. Get help. Thursday, November 11, Asia-Pacific Features World. By Ryan Zhang.
March 15, Next article From Tourists to Travelers. SAARC, on the other hand, has yet to take off and contribute towards the creation of a predictable and orderly regional environment. However, over 50 million people in the region are still living below the poverty threshold , at USD1. The ASEAN Declaration states that the aims and purposes of the Association are: 1 to accelerate economic growth, social progress and cultural development in the region and 2 to promote regional peace and stability through abiding respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries in the ….
Useful articles 0. Can you sing Happy Birthday in Thai? Members continue to set their own intellectual-property, land-use and immigration policies.
These criticisms are not wrong. ASEAN never progresses in a linear fashion. It often moves like a crab: it takes two steps forward, one step backwards and one step sideways. Viewed over a short period, progress is hard to see. Initial ASEAN meetings were characterized by a palpable distrust, in light of the bilateral disagreements between the founding members.
Yet, twenty years later, an undeniable camaraderie had developed. ASEAN had even operated with no formal charter since its founding until , a whole forty years later. Each of these crucial developments must have seemed inconceivable in ASEAN has also escaped dysfunctions that beset many other regional organizations.
For example, many regional organizations are dominated by one country, instead of operating on a basis of equality. Similarly, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization is dominated by China, which sets the agenda.
When a regional organization is dominated by one power, its other members have less of a say over the workings and decisions of the organization. Naturally, they will not develop a strong sense of ownership of the organization.
Furthermore, the fact that no one member state dominates ASEAN is a source of trust for third parties. It means that the organization will not make decisions which serve only to promote the interests of a major power. ASEAN has emerged as the indispensable platform for great-power engagement in the Asia-Pacific region precisely because it is too weak to be a threat to anyone; as a result, all the great powers instinctively trust it.
The Gulf Cooperation Council GCC is dysfunctional because the level of trust among its members is low, despite the organization having been around since In principle, the level of trust and confidence should have been high within the GCC since the member states share many commonalities, including language Arabic , religion Islam , social structure traditional ruling families , and geopolitical interests fear of Iran. Yet, the recent diplomatic crisis in the Gulf has revealed undeniable fault lines within the GCC.
The strongest regional organization is, of course, the European Union. But it is difficult to take the European Union as a model for regional integration. Its nature is not easy to discern. In theory, it is an economic union designed to promote economic integration. In practice, it was set up primarily to prevent another major war in Europe.
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