Special Report - “ASEAN’s Critical Assessment and Practical Reforms”

Established in 1967, The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) aims to maintain regional peace and security amidst the ideological tension during the Cold War. From the initial inception period and the expansion of membership to a formalization with a vision setting, ASEAN has indeed achieved a reputation for maintaining regional peace and stability in Southeast Asia for more than five decades. An ASEAN Scholar Amitav Acharya labeled it as “a durable regional grouping in the developing world”.

Despite having been operating for over five decades, achieving numerous milestones, and navigating the region through the Cold War and many key turning points in international politics, ASEAN is still fiercely criticized by pundits for various strategic matters and, most notably for the principles of its Charter on consensus mechanism and its conflict management system, just to name a few. ASEAN’s progress has been relatively slow and often faced obstacles due to the internal and external conflicts.

In recent years, ASEAN has faced a tremendous set of challenges, and indeed the geopolitical and strategic factor had a crucial role to play in the continuous development of ASEAN itself. These range from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, food and energy insecurity, the political crisis in Myanmar, the downturn of the global economy as well as the intensified major power rivalry between the US and China. ASEAN arrived at the crossroads where it must do more/step up to ensure resilience and relevance in shaping its own regional architecture. The policy and mechanisms for the full realization of the ASEAN Community must be properly drafted with careful strategic calculation, effective implementation, and meaningful evaluation.

Recognizing that there are loopholes and obstacles as well as and existing and potential threats that may hinder ASEAN from addressing the regional and global issues, a few questions shall be raised: How can ASEAN revitalize itself? What are the practical reforms to foster regional integration? What efforts should be undertaken to realize a people- oriented and people-centered ASEAN Community?

This special publication aims to explore ASEAN’s weaknesses or loopholes in its existing working mechanisms, policies and initiatives by looking at its main three pillars, namely the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC), ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC), and to offer recommendations for practical reforms. This will be an evident-based study, co-led by the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation Offices in Cambodia and the Philippines, in close cooperation with the Asian Vision Institute (AVI); and it will gather eminent scholars with expertise on ASEAN across the region to provide critical assessment and formulate feasible recommendations based on each of ASEAN ́s three pillars.