The ASEAN Civil Society Conference: a ‘people-oriented’ ASEAN?
Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia holds a press conference at the conclusion of the 20th Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 4 April 2012. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Kelly Gerard, UWA

The first of two ASEAN Civil Society Conferences to be held under Cambodia’s chairmanship took place in late March, alongside the first ASEAN Summit for 2012.

The Cambodian government’s intervention in this event set a new benchmark for measures employed by ASEAN governments to oust civil society participation from official discussions. Read more…

Melding India’s economic and strategic thinking
A Ford production plant near Sanand, 60 km from Ahmedabad on 22 March 2012. Attracting manufacturing is one way in which India can become more integrated in the Asian region. (Photo: AAP9

Author: Evan A. Feigenbaum, CFR

South Asia is among the least economically integrated regions of the world, in part because the 1947 partition of British India cleaved apart various natural economic communities.

Regions such as Bengal, which had been well integrated historically, suffered considerable economic ill effects. And post-1947 policies have only exacerbated the problem through tariffs, production restrictions and trade controls.

Read more…

Diplomatic currents running strong in the South China Sea
The aircraft carrier Varyag being renovated at a shipyard in Dalian city, China 19 March 2012. The Chinese navy will deploy it in the increasingly political arena of the South China Sea, the Shanghai Daily newspaper reported. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Carlyle A. Thayer, UNSW Canberra

Chinese civilian maritime surveillance vessels carried out a number of aggressive activities in parts of the South China Sea claimed by the Philippines and Vietnam in early 2011, raising regional tensions and sparking concern in the US and throughout the region about maritime security. 

This concern now seems largely abated, after diplomatic efforts produced a somewhat unexpected positive development. Read more…

ASEAN centrality: a year of big power transitions
Foreign ministers and government officials attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum in Nusa Dua, Indonesia on 23 July 2011. Clinton issued a warning on 23 July over tensions in the South China Sea while cautiously welcoming progress in efforts to restart North Korean nuclear talks. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Benjamin Ho, RSIS

Much has been made of Asia’s rise to global prominence and the continent’s increasingly important role in global politics.

But what does this mean for ASEAN, whose regional presence has also received growing attention from the global community of late? Read more…

Rising tensions in the South China Sea
Filipino protesters display their placards during a rally outside the Chinese consular office in Manila. The protesters condemned the Chinese military incursions into the West Philippine Sea even as they called for a peaceful resolution. The US supports the Philippines in its claim to certain areas in the disputed Spratly Islands. The disputed area is believed to be rich in oil, mineral and marine resources. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Vikram Nehru, Carnegie Endowment

Tensions continue to rise in the South China Sea following the Obama administration’s foreign policy ‘pivot’ toward Asia late last year.

There are many reasons for the pivot, but a principal motivation was to protect the freedom of navigation in the Malacca Straits and the South China Sea. Read more…

Cambodia’s ASEAN chairmanship in 2012
Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna greets Cambodian counterpart Hor Namhong in New Delhi, 13 February 2012. The foreign ministers were attending the two-day dialogue between India and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). (Photo: AAP)

Author: Rodolfo C. Severino, ISEAS

For the second time in ASEAN’s history, Cambodia has taken over the chairmanship of this ten-nation association.

It first chaired ASEAN in 2002–03, when the country had been a member for only three years. Yet the world and the region have changed considerably in the last 10 years. Read more…

International financial crises and the ASEAN economies
Public road infrastructure and building construction rise up at Indonesia's capital city of Jakarta on December 12, 2011. A week earlier The Asian Development Bank trimmed its 2012 growth forecast for emerging East Asian economies as the eurozone turmoil threatens to drag the global economy back into crisis. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Arief Ramayandi, ADB

The slow resolution of the European debt crisis has evolved into a liquidity problem which threatens the global financial system.

And these long-drawn-out efforts to address the sovereign debt problems have heightened uncertainties about resolving the crisis and induced speculative activities, threatening the survival of many European banks. Read more…

The South China Sea dispute: a legal solution needed
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak during the ASEAN Plus Three Summit on 18 November, 2011. Jiabao warned against outside interference over the South China Sea dispute, in a challenge to Washington which wants to broach the issue at an Asian summit. (Photo: APP)

Author: John Hemmings, CSIS, Honolulu

At both the APEC and ASEAN summits, attempts were made to deal with the building impasse over the South China Sea issue.

Tensions over the region have grown steadily since 2009, after China, Vietnam and Malaysia submitted their respective claims under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). China’s naval exercises in the region and apparent willingness to showcase its military capabilities in favour of its claims have also exacerbated these tensions. Read more…

India and Pakistan: what the most-favoured-nation decision means
Pakistani labourers offload tomato boxes from Indian trucks at the Pakistan-India Wagah border post. Cosmetics are smuggled by donkey through Afghanistan, chemicals and medicines track through Dubai. But only a fraction of legal trade travels directly from India to Pakistan. A baffling array of legal and practical barriers to exports between the suspicious neighbours has spurned unofficial trade worth up to US$10 billion, dwarfing official exchanges of US$2.7 billion. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Rajiv Kumar, FICCI

Pakistan’s decision to grant India most favoured nation (MFN) trading status opens up many potential benefits for both countries; existing trade arrangements will be improved and new opportunities will emerge as bilateral trade is normalised.

At present, a great deal of trade occurs via Dubai, a situation which is inefficient and fraught with illegalities effectively functioning as behind-the-border barriers to trade. Read more…

Burma: a test that ASEAN may be failing
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon shakes hands with Burmese President Thein Sein before their meeting on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit. Ban said he planned to visit Burma 'as soon as possible', after talks with President Thein Sein where he urged progress on nascent reforms. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Julie Sheetz, Harvard University

Even before the announcement that ASEAN member states had awarded the 2014 rotating chairmanship to Burma, it was already a foregone conclusion.

Burma’s campaign to be reinstated as a regular member of ASEAN gained steam when Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Marty Natalegawa, began hinting at approval before his visit to Naypyidaw, Burma’s capital, last month. Read more…

The US in the EAS: implications for US–ASEAN relations
US President Barack Obama applauds with Southeast Asian leaders, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (L), Philippines President Benigno Aquino (2nd L) and Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah (R), during a group photo session for the leaders of the East Asia Summit in Nusa Dua in Bali, Indonesia, on 19 November, 2011. (Photo: AAP).

Author: Ralf Emmers, RSIS

The US recently participated in the East Asia Summit (EAS) for the first time — a decision that has wider implications for US–ASEAN relations.

The decision to join the EAS is part of a recalibration of US foreign policy vis-à-vis ASEAN-led multilateral institutions. This shift in policy reflects a broader attempt by the US to re-engage with Southeast Asia — after years of perceived indifference — and is equally related to China’s growing influence in the Asia Pacific region. Read more…

Europe in the Pacific century
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton arrive to speak to the press following talks at the State Department in Washington on 11 July 2011. From the speech Secretary Clinton gave in Honolulu earlier this month, unless Europe is involved in Asia it will not have a meaningful say in the future of politics. (Photo:AAP)

Author: Frans-Paul van der Putten, Clingendael

This century will be America’s Pacific century, wrote US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the November issue of Foreign Policy.

As she put it: ‘The future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the centre of the action’. Read more…

The United States and the East Asia Summit: a new beginning?
US President Barack Obama (R) listens as Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (L) speaks during their meeting on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and East Asia summits in Bali, on November 19, 2011. Obama held unscheduled talks with Premier Wen after a week of sharp exchanges between the two nations.

Authors: David Capie, Victoria University; and Amitav Acharya, American University

This week President Obama will join seventeen other Asian leaders in Bali for the Sixth East Asia Summit (EAS).

With a tough economy at home and the decision of the Congressional ‘super-committee’ on the federal budget only days away, this is hardly a good time for a US president to be out of the country. Obama’s decision to participate in the EAS for the first time in Bali is therefore a powerful symbol of a shift in American policy towards Asia. It also says much about the evolving nature of regional cooperation. Read more…