The members’ political systems include democracies, authoritarian states, and hybrid regimes. ASEAN’s geography includes archipelagos and continental land masses with low plains and mountainous terrain. For example, Singapore and Vietnam are among the world’s most religiously diverse countries, according to a 2014 Pew Research Center report, while Buddhist-majority Cambodia and Muslim-majority Indonesia are relatively homogeneous. Demographics differ across the region, too, with many religious and ethnic groups represented. Singapore has the highest GDP per capita in the group, at around $60,000, according to 2020 World Bank figures Myanmar’s is the lowest, at around $1,400. ASEAN’s DiversityĪSEAN brings together countries with significant differences. (Timor-Leste submitted an application for membership in 2011, but some members oppose its accession.) The charter laid out a blueprint for a community made up of three branches: the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the ASEAN Political-Security Community, and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community. The charter enshrines core principles and delineates requirements for membership. In 2007, the ten members adopted the ASEAN Charter, a constitutional document that provided the grouping with legal status and an institutional framework. For instance, the Chiang Mai Initiative was a currency swap arrangement initiated in 2000 among ASEAN members, China, Japan, and South Korea to provide financial support to one another and fight currency speculation. For example, the members signed a treaty in 1995 to refrain from developing, acquiring, or possessing nuclear weapons.įaced with the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which started in Thailand, ASEAN members pushed to further integrate their economies. With the addition of Brunei (1984), Vietnam (1995), Laos and Myanmar (1997), and Cambodia (1999), the group started to launch initiatives to boost regional cooperation. The resolution of Cambodia’s civil war in 1991, the end of the Cold War, and the normalization of relations between the United States and Vietnam in 1995 brought relative peace to mainland Southeast Asia, paving the way for more states to join ASEAN. Membership doubled by the end of the 1990s. “ culture of consultations and consensus generated geopolitical miracles, some so stealthy that few outside the region have noticed them,” says Mahbubani. Supporters of ASEAN, such as Kishore Mahbubani, who served as Singapore’s permanent representative to the United Nations, say the grouping has improved previously hostile regional relations. “These norms of consensus and noninterference have increasingly become outdated, and they have hindered ASEAN’s influence on issues such as dealing with China and crises in particular ASEAN states,” says CFR’s Joshua Kurlantzick. Many experts see this approach to decision-making as a drawback of the organization. Important decisions are usually reached through consultation and consensus guided by the principles of noninterference in internal affairs and peaceful resolution of conflicts. How ASEAN WorksĪSEAN is headed by a chair-a position that rotates annually among member states-and is assisted by a secretariat based in Jakarta, Indonesia. The bloc’s biggest challenges, they say, are developing a unified approach to China, particularly in response to territorial disputes in the South China Sea, and responding to Myanmar’s civil war. Yet experts say ASEAN’s impact is limited by a lack of strategic vision, diverging priorities among member states, and weak leadership. Indonesia’s Election Exposes Growing Religious Divide
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