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61 - Driving East Asian Regionalism: The Reconstruction of ASEAN's Identity
- from ASEAN Processes
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- By Herman Joseph S. Kraft, University of the Philippines
- Edited in consultation with Kee Beng Ooi, Sanchita Basu Das, Terence Chong, Malcolm Cook, Cassey Lee, Michael Chai Ming Yeo
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- Book:
- The 3rd ASEAN Reader
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 22 June 2017
- Print publication:
- 17 August 2015, pp 323-327
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Summary
The process of East Asian regionalism received a shot in the arm in 2008 with the proposal made by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd about restructuring the Asia-Pacific regional architecture. This was followed by the proposal made by Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on an East Asian community. There are substantive differences between the two concepts (one being that the former has been much more developed over time while the latter has been left for further discussion). Both, however, have attracted quite a bit of attention, not primarily because of their substantive content but more because of their implications for how currently existing regional institutions seem to be falling short of expectation thus creating the need to explore alternative arrangements. In an indirect way, this is reflective of how much its partners are beginning to grow weary of the ASEAN Way and of the way ASEAN has driven the process.
The very success, however, of ASEAN in managing intra-ASEAN relations to the point of being able to make the prospect of conflict between ASEAN member states unlikely (as well as its involvement in the Cambodian conflict) gave it an international stature out of proportion to the status of its individual member states. This was in fact recognized by its dialogue partners when they accepted the idea that the Association should chair the post-Cold War forum that would oversee discussions and dialogue on the security of the Asia-Pacific region. The fact that it was also called the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) when it was established in 1994 more than stamped the ASEAN mark upon it — it signified the adoption of ASEAN norms (especially the consensus-based method of decision-making) as the foundation for what was effectively a nascent attempt at extra-ASEAN regionalism. That it did so with much misgiving did not detract from its determination to show the applicability of the ASEAN “model” to a wider Asia-Pacific scope. This started ASEAN on its way to a significant shift in the evolution of its identity — from an association dedicated to keeping the Southeast Asian region free from being enmeshed in great power rivalries to one which accepted its “centrality” in a wider East Asian and Asia-Pacific regionalism, a process that would entail accepting the involvement of and engaging the major powers in the context of the region.
The Philippines in 2009: The Fourth-Quarter Collapse
- from THE PHILIPPINES
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- By Herman Joseph S. Kraft, University of the Philippines at Diliman
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- Book:
- Southeast Asian Affairs 2010
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 21 October 2015
- Print publication:
- 18 May 2010, pp 237-258
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Summary
The Year of the Fourth-Quarter Collapse
One of the most incongruous characteristics of Philippine society is the popularity of basketball among a people not noted for their height. The greater interest is in the professional game which is played in quarters rather than according to the amateur rule of dividing the game into two halves. To the Filipino fan, nothing evokes a greater thrill than the fourth-quarter rally, a situation where nothing that the favoured team does can go wrong and allows it to catch up with and surpass the score of the opposing team in the span of the last twelve minutes of the game. Moves are executed perfectly, a very high percentage of the shots go in, loose balls generally end up in or near the hands of their players, and close calls by the referee favour them. In other words, the hard work and skill of the players combined with good luck allow the favoured team to make up for what had generally been bad first three quarters to, as the cliché goes, snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Conversely, the most dismaying development for the fan would be a situation where their favoured team has built a comfortable lead through three very competently played quarters but is suddenly unable to do anything right to protect the hard-earned lead in the last. The fourth-quarter collapse is a syndrome that has affected even the very best teams. Teams with the most disciplined and highly trained and skilled players can find themselves in situations where nothing works in the fourth quarter, and end up handing over to the opposing team what looked in the first part of the game like certain victory.
The analogy of the fourth-quarter collapse is a way of describing the Philippines in 2009. The end of 2008 did not give much room for confidence. There was concern about how the Philippines would cope with the long-term effects of the global financial crisis. There were projections of overseas Filipino workers being laid off and forced to come back to the country. Not only would the volume of remittances upon which the Philippine economy had become so reliant diminish, it would also intensify the expected effects of the financial crisis on the unemployment situation.
1 - The ASEAN Political-Security Community and the Financial Crisis
- from II - Background Papers
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- By Herman Joseph S. Kraft, University of the Philippines
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- Book:
- The Global Economic Crisis
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 21 October 2015
- Print publication:
- 01 February 2010, pp 25-41
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Summary
Introduction
This paper looks at how the global financial crisis impacts on the ASEAN aspiration to build an ASEAN Community. In particular, it looks at the crisis' effect on the establishment of an ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC). It argues three points. First, the most important contribution of the APSC is in the normative foundations it outlines for ASEAN. These foundations are first and foremost directed at ensuring domestic stability and harmony, it has its principal objective in strengthening ASEAN's position in East Asian regionalism and in maintaining security in Southeast Asia and the broader context of the Asia-Pacific region. The normative commitments outlined in the APSC, however, also imply the need for a certain degree of institutionalization — an outcome that ASEAN does not seem to be as committed to. This brings out the second point — ASEAN, despite its rhetorical commitment to a particular set of normative structures, will continue to be bogged down in setting up the institutional mechanisms needed to realize these normative structures. Third, the intra-ASEAN dynamics at the centre of this issue will be further complicated by the effects of the global financial crisis. In general, ASEAN will continue to be burdened by the inherent contradiction between the normative aspirations expressed in the APSC Blueprint and its desire to maintain existing institutional structural arrangements.
The ASEAN Political-Security Community
On 3 June 2003, Rizal Sukma of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta presented a paper conceptualizing an ASEAN security community at a seminar, “ASEAN Cooperation: Challenges and Prospects in the Current lnternational Situation”. Sukma pointed to the need for the establishment of an ASEAN security community that would pursue a comprehensive framework of security that gives equal importance to both traditional and non-military security issues and responses (Sukma 2003, p. 3). The paper was conceived in reaction to the proposal of the Singaporean Government to establish an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) that went beyond the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA). Sukma argued that “ASEAN can no longer pretend that peace, stability, and prosperity can only be achieved through economic cooperation” (Sukma 2003, p. 2). This paper eventually became the departure point for the Indonesian Government's initiative on the establishment of the ASEAN Security Community.
8 - Japan and the United States in ASEAN-China Relations
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- By Herman Joseph S. Kraft, Institute for Strategic and Development Studies
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- Book:
- ASEAN-China Relations
- Published by:
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Published online:
- 18 November 2017
- Print publication:
- 17 August 2005, pp 90-109
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Summary
INTRODUCTION
Descriptions of the relationship between China and the ASEAN states range from one of inevitable hegemony1 to one of greater openness, comfort and cooperation.2 At first glance, these perspectives seem to reflect different points of emphasis. From a security standpoint, the effects of China's growing military and economic strength on the medium- and long-term stability and prosperity of the ASEAN states is seen as a cause for concern. Increased economic cooperation, however, is being institutionalized through the ASEAN+3 process as well as through multilateral and bilateral free trade agreements. These apparently diametrically opposed tendencies are not necessarily mutually exclusive as it is quite possible to look at the increasing “openness, comfort and cooperation” between China and ASEAN as part of an ASEAN policy of accommodation in the face of the inexorable growth of Chinese power. The reality behind it, however, is probably closer to somewhere in between. Relations between China and the ASEAN states are tinged with elements of both heightened cooperation and continuing unease.
From an ASEAN standpoint, the relationship with China is increasin gly becoming one of its most important strategic partnership particularly over the long term. The ASEAN states, individually and collectively, need to balance between the dichotomy of competition and cooperation. It is, however, not purely a matter of exploring and finding common interests with China that could be exploited. ASEAN has two other strategic relationships with other major partners which are both more long-standing and enduring. While ASEAN's relationship with China may develop into its most significant partnership over the long-term, its relationship with Japan and the United States are equally, if not more so, important in the present term. It is commonly perceived that ASEAN relations with Japan and the United States are part of a strategy of balancing the increasing power of China in the region. Doing so, however, reduces the importance of the evolving partnership between ASEAN and China, and attenuates the complexity of ASEAN relations with Japan and the United States to a mere strategy of balancing China.