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Abstract

The Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) is at a crossroad of its history. The 1997 economic crisis has weakened its oldest state members, making more difficult the integration of the new ones. Post 9/11 United States policy and the focus put on the fight against terrorism, and more specifically on Islamic terrorism, have given birth to new divides in countries where a process of religious and community radicalisation was already engaged. Facing these new challenges, governments have often preferred national solutions instead of regional co-operation, and bilateral problems have emerged between ASEAN state members. For the sake of regional peace and stability, it is now time for the Association to bridge its current divides through a renewed policy of integration. But in the present context of a rising China, a transforming Japan, an uncertain Korean peninsula and numerous problems in Northeast Asia, the ASEAN needs the full co-operation of the three main Asian powers if it wants to have a chance of building the 'ASEAN + 3' framework that is called to be the foundation of a future enlarged Eastern Asian community.

Eric Teo Chu Cheow is the Council Secretary of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA).