| ID | 083488 |
| Title Proper | Power, interest or culture - is there a paradigm that explains ASEAN's political role best |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Kivimaki, Timo |
| Publication | 2008. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | This article attempts to build on insights on scholarship that tries to explain the successfulness of ASEAN and tries to produce some tested conclusions on what it is that explains ASEAN's success best. This is done by using slightly stricter criteria of explanation that has been used before and by exploiting the newest quantitative data on conflicts. Stricter explanation is attempted through greater care in defining the variables of explanation, as well as by trying to avoid the Western biases that many of the existing international relations theories have. When explaining how ASEAN manages to reach many of its political objectives, the focus in this article is on material realties as well as perceived and constructed ones. The explanation attempts to be careful in assessing what is to be explained. This is why this article first defines the criteria of success by looking at what it is that ASEAN attempts to do and then employs the quantitative data to see whether the existence of ASEAN is correlated to the desired outcomes. At the end of this article, the concluding explanation of ASEAN will be relativized by looking at the new challenges to which ASEAN should or could respond. The elitism of the 'old ASEAN Way' will need to give way to a more broad-based approach to stability, if ASEAN wants to remain relevant as an organization in the future. |
| `In' analytical Note | Pacific Review Vol. 21, No.4; Sep 2008: p431-450 |
| Journal Source | Pacific Review Vol. 21, No.4; Sep 2008: p431-450 |
| Key Words | ASEAN security ; ASEAN peace ; Constructivism ; Liberal peace |