The Association of South East Asian Nations, or ASEAN, is comprised of ten member countries that have come together to form a regional economic and trade bloc in the international community of nations already committed to pursue free and fair trade in many spheres of international fora. As the entire world gears up to realize a new globalized economic world order, countries have increasingly resorted to strengthen regional ties and promote regional cooperation and achieve the global goals of free trade within their respective economic regions, while at the same time committing to the targets of the World Trade Organization in particular.
Globalization is at the crux of increasing strengthened regionalization taking place in most parts of the world. Beyond international trade and economics, globalization is best understood as a multifaceted or differentiated social phenomenon that refers to patterns of growing global interconnectedness within all the key domains of social activity. More than an economic process, globalization describes the phenomenon of a broader, deeper and faster interconnection of peoples across the globe in just about every facet of human life. Globalization is the deepening outcome of how the world is connecting beyond international trade, involving the movement as well of capital, information, technology and people. Globalization is a social, political, economic, cultural, military, financial, environmental and may even be a criminal phenomenon connecting countries and geo-political regions (Held, et al n.pag.).
Regionalization may therefore be seen as globalization within a defined geo-political region, as countries in that given geo-political region group and regroup to explore avenues of cooperation and collaboration, even integration initiatives in order to secure region-wide goals and objectives that relate to security, trade and exchange in all its facets (goods and services, capital, information, technology and people).
So there is the European Union which seeks to integrate the economic, mainly monetary, systems of its member-countries, as well as establish itself as a formidable trade bloc. There are are a number of regional trade agreements and cooperation schemes in the world as well. In Asia, the ASEAN has proven to be a forceful and cohesive regional bloc that has made inroads in international cooperation efforts as well as intra-regional trade alliances. The ASEAN has committed to the globalization effort by securing commitments to the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement, moving the entire dispersed region towards the ultimate goal of globalization, even as the newest members like Cambodia and Myanmar are pressed to meet the goals of uniform regional tariff. At the same time, the ASEAN has sought to attract direct foreign investment within the confines of its economic sphere, successfully developing investment areas in each member country in two decades prior to the Asian Financial Crisis (Mirza and Giroud 2).
Founded in 1967 by the state leaders of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, its membership later grew to include Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. Together, the ASEAN seeks economic integration and cooperation among its member-countries as well as a unified trade and economic bloc against the rest of the world (ASEAN n. pag.). But beyond the obvious trade-related aspirations is the recognition of the diversity of cultures and history and political systems that characterize each member of the ASEAN. Having acknowledged the diverse ASEAN character, each member proceeds to connect to the collective initiative to project a unified front in the global arena even as the ASEAN proceeds to integrate the diverse economic, political and social environments into the future ahead. This is reiterated in the ASEAN Charter signed into force in 2007.
- Goals of the ASEAN
As envisioned by its founding members, the ASEAN declares to achieve a 7-point goal that includes the pursuit of economic growth, social progress and cultural development through equal cooperation and partnership, promotion of regional peace and stability through respect for justice and the rule of law and compliance to the United Nations Charter, collaboration and mutual assistance on common interest in the economic, social, cultural, technical, scientific and administrative fields, promotion of Southeast Asian studies, and close and beneficial cooperation with existing international and regional organizations with similar aims and purposes (ASEAN n. pag.).
- ASEAN Charter
Growing into its present-time full membership of ten countries or member-states, the ASEAN heads of state signed into force in 2007 the defining ASEAN Charter which confers unto the ASEAN a legal personality as an inter-governmental organization. The Charter brings the diverse Southeast Asian economies and communities closer to realizing integration as a region, similar to the economic integration of the European countries. This conscious collective initiative comes in the heels of ever-increasing efforts to promote intra-regional cooperation while at the same time adhering to the fundamental principles emphasized in the ASEAN Charter.
The ASEAN Charter articulates the present goals and guiding principles that all of the 10 member-countries have now committed to. These goals have been expanded and include the imperative to maintain and strengthen regional peace and security, promote greater political, security, economic and social and cultural cooperation, declare ASEAN as free of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction, create a single market and production base by integrating the economies of the member-countries and facilitating trade and investments by ensuring free flow of goods and services and investment, free-er flow of capital and facilitating the movement of persons within the region.
Even as the ASEAN Charter moves closer to integration, all the ten member-countries uphold the fundamental principles, of which the paramount consideration is the respect for the independence, sovereignty and territorial dignity and national identity of each member-country. Another principle is non-interference in the internal affairs of member-countries.
A redefining feature of the ASEAN Charter is realizing into full force the initiatives of prior accords and declarations by enabling the organizational structure for the establishment of the tripartite ASEAN Community. This, the ASEAN Community, is the landmark attempt to integrate the diverse economies and social and political systems of member-countries.
As the embodiment of full regional integration, the ASEAN Community is structured to be established on three pillars, namely, the Political and Security Community, Economic Community, and Social and Cultural Community. The organizational and institutional framework that enables and kicks off this vision of regional integration is embedded in the ASEAN Charter signed into force in 2007, signaling the decisive march to its implementation with aims that make the ASEAN a single production base among others (ASEAN n. pag.). In addition, it is touted that the establishment of the ASEAN Community would elevate the standards of political and security cooperation, with the member-countries exclusively relying on peaceful processes in the settlement of disputes (Rafiazka 2).
- ASEAN and Beyond: The Critique
As a regional trade bloc, the ASEAN has been successful in establishing itself as a cohesive force among Asian economies. No greater proof can be shown than the admission into its membership base the rest of the countries in Southeast Asia. The entry of the newest members to the ASEAN fold enables the ASEAN to be truly representative of the geo-political and economic region that is Southeast Asia. It can be argued, however, that Timor-Leste has been left out of this regional integration scheme (Jonsson 3). Be that as it may, the growth in the membership base only serves to make a compelling bargaining front against the rest of the world in terms of international trade positions. At the same time, the ASEAN declarations and accords that are reflected in the ASEAN Charter serve to ensure regional security and peace which are vital to the attainment of economic growth and poverty reduction goals.
It is argued that the ASEAN makes a compelling case for globalization, in the all-encompassing sense, if it succeeds in unifying the diverse social, political, economic and cultural systems of Southeast Asian peoples. Certainly, the road to regional cooperation if not integration has been fractious. Very much like the European Union, there have been serious attempts to centrally map out a regional production allocation of sorts, and these have later been abandoned. There was also a post-ASEAN idea to establish an East Asian regional bloc that would include China, Japan and South Korea (Razalli 31). This, too, failed to take off.
These failed efforts notwithstanding, there is much to be hopeful for in terms of ASEAN taking the big step towards globalization and not just regionalization. Only with a strengthened regional ties bound by a commitment to fundamental universal global principles and an appreciation of the ethnic character of each member-country can the goals of globalization be realized. The free movement of goods and services and capital, and the facilitated transfer of information and persons across the globe will be realized when these processes and their attendant issues are threshed out at the geo-political region level. There can be no successful globalization campaign when regionalization is weak and the members of a given geo-political region are fractious because perhaps the leadership is fractious and there is no unifying and cohesive theme or framework. In this respect, the ASEAN is in the right direction having articulated its mutual agreements and aspirations in the ASEAN Charter, with each member-country legally bound to uphold it as the ASEAN takes on a legal personality. Embedded in the ASEAN Charter is the vision of an ASEAN Community, articulated in present and prior accords and declarations. While the globalization effort may have stalled with the problems currently faced by leading regional blocs such as the European Union, it is my opinion that ASEAN is poised to take the cudgels for the cause by aligning every member’s national interests with the fundamental global goals and principles declared in the ASEAN Charter.
Works Cited
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