• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.119-145
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• 2018

Celebrating its $50^{th}$ anniversary in 2017, the leaders of ASEAN member sates have adopted a series of declarations and action plans for enhancing its institutional capability and functional cooperation. ASEAN's convening power is expected to underpin its centrality and resilience. Meanwhile, ASEAN's retreat from democracy has increasingly become a hindrance for its further development. This article reviews the process of ASEAN's community building and its external relations. First, it argues that there is increasing concerns over ASEAN's limited capability in dealing with regional issues mainly caused by the deprivation of human rights and the democracy in crisis. Second, this article considers the dynamics of ASEAN's external relations mainly focusing on its relations with China, the United States, and South Korea. The South China Sea issue and China's increasing economic influence in the region have contributed to the complexity of ASEAN-China relations. The ASEAN's responses to the shift in American foreign policy under the Trump administration posits the unity of ASEAN. The New Southern Policy initiated by South Korean President, Moon Jae-in appears to be a new focal point of Korea-ASEAN relations despite considerable challenges, which requires to maintain ASEAN centrality.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.155-184
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• 2017

ASEAN marking its 50th anniversary in 2017 draws hopes and concerns. There is hope for the full realization of the vision of ASEAN Community since 2015 while there are increasing concerns about the changing internal and external environments. This article reviews the process of ASEAN's community building and its external relations. First, after reviewing institutionalization and functional cooperation in 2016, it argues that there is increasing pressure for the modification of the 'ASEAN Way' mainly due to the recent political changes in some ASEAN member states. Second, this article considers the nature of ASEAN's external relation focusing on continuity rather than change. The tendency of external relations of ASEAN appears to be 'avoiding conflict' and 'status quo' while it concentrates on development cooperation. We argue that such attitude contributes to the unity of ASEAN as it is useful in searching for regional resilience which is a common goal of ASEAN power elites.

• East Asian Economic Review
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.3-25
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• 2022

East Asia's Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) came into force in 2022 as the world's largest free trade agreement. RCEP was concluded, signed and brought into force in the face of major international uncertainty and is a significant boost to the global trading system. RCEP brings Australia, China, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand into the same agreement with the ten member ASEAN group at its centre. It keeps markets open and updates trade and investment rules in East Asia, a major centre of global economic activity, at a time of rising protectionism when the WTO itself is under threat. The agreement builds on ASEAN's free trade agreements and strengthens ASEAN centrality. One of the pillars of RCEP is an economic cooperation agenda which has its antecedents in ASEAN's approach to bringing along its least developed members and builds on the experience of capacity building in APEC and technical cooperation under the ASEAN Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement. There is an opportunity to create a framework that facilitates deeper economic cooperation that involves experience-sharing, extending RCEP's rules and membership at the same time as strengthening political cooperation. The paper suggests some areas that might be best suited to cooperation - that is confidence and trust building instead of or before negotiation - and discusses how non-members may be engaged and the membership expanded. Options such as multilateralising provisions and becoming a platform for policy convergence and coordinating unilateral reforms are canvassed.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.81-118
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• 2020

Despite its centrality at a pivotal crossroads of both land and sea of East-West trade, communications and travel, the region now known as Southeast Asia provides very few scholarly works situating or featuring it in an international context. Because of this paucity, there is immense scope for exploration. But prior to further explorations, justification is needed to establish that Southeast Asia, as a region, is a subject of interest, relevance, and significance in a global context. Southeast Asia was home to several empires whose reach transcended the region and beyond. Southeast Asia in, and as part of international history as an area of study is therefore justifiable. Moreover, other factors come into play, viz. geography, resources, migration, diffusion of ideas and beliefs from without and accommodation from within, shared experience of imperialism and colonialism, decolonization, and the Cold War, and the collective fate under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), that further bolster its rationalization as a component of international history. Explorations, on the other hand, examine issues and obstacles that contribute to the paucity of works on Southeast Asia in international history. Furthermore, in contextualizing Southeast Asia in international history, there might appear challenges that need to be identified, confronted, and resolved.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.83-120
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• 2018

For Singapore, 2017 was an uneasy year. The presidential election was fraught with controversy since the revised Presidential Election Act allowed only one candidate to be eligible for the election. The bitter feud between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his siblings shocked many Singaporeans. Succession planning for the next top leadership is still veiled in obscurity. The anti-globalization trend and the increasing pressure to raise the tax have become major challenges for Singapore's economy to overcome. China's continuous diplomatic pressure has called into the question Singapore's pragmatic foreign policy. Although its relations with China were back to normal, Singapore, the ASEAN chair in 2018, is still facing intractable problems in safeguarding ASEAN centrality in the growing US-China rivalry. In the meantime, Singapore has pursued its diversity and equality, heading toward a more matured multi-racial and multi-cultural society in 2017. The first female president, Halimah Yacob, served as a symbolic epitome of Singapore's emphasis on diversity and harmony among different ethnic groups and minorities. This great milestone, however, has largely been questioned by Singaporeans, as it seemed to be a political gesture that only utilized Halimah's double minority in the level of ideologies. The election of the Malay president has led Singaporeans to think about the real equity and equality among minorities, while strongly motivated to move toward a more inclusive society. In 2018, Singaporean leaders will try to resolve many challenging problems by reaffirming leadership succession planning, which is expected to lead Singapore to pursue a more integrated society.