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ID:
113841
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2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The vitality of ASEAN derives from its core. Until the mid 1990s, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand provided the dynamism of ASEAN and their national leaders the regional leadership so necessary for the Association's existence. Entering its fifth decade, the Association seems posited at a "mid-life crisis". The ASEAN Charter has proposed bold ideas in community-building. Yet the "loss" of a strong leadership impetus has cast a shadow of uncertainty over the extent to which ASEAN may reduce the gap between the richer and poorer nations of Southeast Asia. The extant two-tiered nature of ASEAN is problematic to its cohesion as each with its defining set of characteristics and views of regionalism. Can the more structured approach make up the leadership deficit and enable ASEAN to reconcile the division in its quest for regional unity? The prolonged Myanmar embarrassment seems to suggest an unconfident "yes" at best.
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| 2 |
ID:
113839
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2012.
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Security has undoubtedly been a central and continuous feature of ASEAN since its establishment. While it has modified its basic thinking on security and adapted elements of the attendant principles, aims and ways of operation to meet changed circumstances, the level of consistency is still readily observable. Centrality of a different sort has been evident, too, during the post-Cold War period. ASEAN has consciously sought to position itself at the heart of the developing security architecture in both East Asia and the wider Asia-Pacific. The Association has been largely successful at limiting competition and preventing inter-state conflict among its members and at fostering a stable regional order in Southeast Asia (and an incipient one outside of the boundaries of Southeast Asia). Broadly speaking, this stability has been aided and abetted by the policies of the major external powers in whose interests it has been, up until now. The extent to which a stable regional order remains in the interests of the major powers will be one of the great questions for the next phase of ASEAN's life.
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| 3 |
ID:
113843
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2012.
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China's impressive growth has been accompanied by huge rural-urban divide and social sacrifice of many including rural-urban migrants. Reflecting on the documentary Last Train Home (2009) by Lixin Fan, this paper identifies and examines the life of rural-urban migrants in China in terms of poverty-reduction, child-care, education and equal opportunities for a better life. By comparing the seemingly difficult and tragic life of the Zhang family against statistical facts, it shows that their suffering and struggles are common to most migrants. In essence, by creating an interactive dialogue between the film and the economic reality in China, this paper highlights the severe constraints on the Chinese peasantry and discusses the implications of limited choices and social injustice towards rural-urban migrants. It argues that the inequality in opportunities and the lack of social care for migrants has created huge social cleavage that not only reduces social welfare but may also impede further development.
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| 4 |
ID:
113837
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2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The aim of this collection is to analyse the nature of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and to consider its future. Given that regional integration is not simply an outcome but a complex and multidimensional process, the prognostic assessments of ASEAN made in this volume are drawn up from examinations of the Association's historical background, economic interplays, political culture, diplomatic norms, institutional governance, and geopolitical surroundings. Reflecting on the conception and shifting dynamics of ASEAN, the essays expound major pressure points on the Association's ambitious agenda for building "one community" with "one vision" and "one identity" among its members, and for staying in the "driver's seat" of all regional initiatives in the wider East Asia.
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| 5 |
ID:
113840
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2012.
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Why are the ASEAN economies increasingly becoming anxious about regional integration? To stay competitive is an obvious answer. Greater cohesion is also imperative for ASEAN to sustain its credibility of being able to provide the platform for interactions in East Asia and the rest of the world. Yet what is offered by the ASEAN Free Trade Area, the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services, and the ASEAN Investment Area may not be adequate or comprehensive enough for the Association to amass the economic clout commensurate with its position as a pivotal player in East Asia. The ASEAN Economic Community is thus the logical, but not automatic, extension of these regional efforts. Can it come to fruition? This paper discusses how the ASEAN economies may address key issues that have hampered deeper economic integration in the region.
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| 6 |
ID:
113838
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| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The opening paper gives an account - partly drawn from the archives of an outside state, New Zealand - of the ancestors of ASEAN: ASA and SEAFET. ASEAN developed a life of its own. Yet SEAFET and ASA give some hints of its aims and some indications of its methods: the need to restrict the intervention of major outside powers; and the need to avoid the dominance by one substantial regional power, but to allow it due influence. The paper suggests that a strong motive behind the early attempts at a regional association was an attempt to deal with the disparate size and power of one state, Indonesia. If - but only if - its urge to regional primacy could be moderated and accommodated would it be possible to diminish recourse to or opportunity for the intervention of outside powers.
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| 7 |
ID:
113844
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| Publication |
2012.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The official narratives of Surrounding Areas in the 1997 New Guidelines are a curiosity: on the one hand, they signify Japan's readiness to increase its international involvement, while on the other hand, the geographical designation remains vague despite Japan's preoccupation with Asia. This suggests that Asia as Japan's neighbourhood is considered along with international developments to facilitate the emergence of an ambiguous language for Japanese policy makers as they seek to adapt to changes in the international environment. As such, the term 'Surrounding Areas' signifies Tokyo's anxieties in facing up to new challenges, as well as the willingness of the government to enhance Japan's international role while maintaining its status as a pacifist state.
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| 8 |
ID:
113842
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