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ASEAN Struggles on in an Uncertain Age

Students carrying ASEAN flags practice outside the Cebu International Convention Center 07 December 2006. The central Philippine city of Cebu is hosting the annual ASEAN summit from 10-14 December where the 10 ASEAN leaders from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysian, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are attending will also hold talks with counterparts among major trading partners as part of the second East Asia summit.
Romeo Gacad / AFP via Getty Images
November 7th, 2022 by Richard Maude

The following is an excerpt of Richard Maude's op-ed originally published in The Diplomat.

Southeast Asia’s “summit season” — an intense round of leader-level meetings and political theater centered on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its most important external partners — kicks off this week in Cambodia.

It’s been another tough year for ASEAN. The venerable 55-year-old organization is battling internal splits, a disintegrating global order, and significant economic headwinds.

Southeast Asia’s top priority is economic growth. The region is recovering from the huge economic hit of the pandemic, but the IMF’s recent Asia update highlights the risks ahead: inflation, a sharp slowdown in China, and lower external demand for Asia’s exports as the war in Ukraine drags on global growth. The IMF also warns ominously that further fragmentation of the global economy driven by strategic competition would be particularly costly for Asia.

Southeast Asian leaders, therefore, want a stable geopolitical environment and an open Indo-Pacific in which growth can be maximized. But ASEAN is struggling to find effective responses to this uncertain new age.

Over decades, ASEAN sought to make itself indispensable (“central”) to Indo-Pacific economic and security architecture, notably through free trade agreements; the East Asia Summit (EAS), which brings ASEAN together with the United States, China, India, Japan, Australia, and other partners; and the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting “plus.”

ASEAN’s objective, as much instinct as grand strategy, was to enmesh and socialize the major powers. It hoped habits of dialogue would deepen cooperation and that this in turn would build trust and support stability, reinforcing norms of responsible state behavior.

Read the full article in The Diplomat.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Richard Maude
bio

Richard Maude

Richard Maude joined Asia Society Australia in January 2020 as the inaugural Executive Director, Policy, and Senior Fellow, Asia Society Policy Institute – the first senior executive role in the Institute outside the United States.
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