Author
Rodolfo C. Severino
Bio: Rodolfo C. Severino is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Southeast asian & Southeast Asian studies. The author has an hindex of 9, co-authored 15 publications receiving 431 citations.
Papers
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Book•
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: In this paper, the "ASEAN Way": its nature and origins, the question of membership, the issue of non-interference, the ASEAN Role, Integrating the Regional Economy 6.
Abstract: Preliminary pages with Foreword by Tommy Koh 1. The "ASEAN Way": Its Nature and Origins 2. Who Belongs in ASEAN? The Question of Membership 3. The Issue of Non-Interference 4. Regional Security: The ASEAN Role 5. Integrating the Regional Economy 6. ASEAN and the World 7. The ASEAN Community: Is It for Real? 8. What Kind of Future for ASEAN?
196 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2013
TL;DR: Hall Hill, H.W. Arndt, and his co-editors as mentioned in this paper published a survey of the issues and challenges of ASEAN economic cooperation, focusing on the AEC Blueprint and the challenges of the 2015 AEC Economic Community target.
Abstract: "This is an important and timely volume: important because ASEAN is an increasingly significant and influential regional and global actor; and timely because, as the 2015 ASEAN Economic Community target approaches, what is needed is a sympathetic yet arms-length survey of the issues and challenges. ASEAN will miss some of the targets laid out in its AEC Blueprint, but the reader is left in no doubt that the ASEAN spirit is alive and well. The editors include a distinguished former Secretary General of ASEAN and the leading academic analyst of ASEAN economic cooperation. They and their co-editors are to be congratulated for soliciting contributions from an outstanding and diverse group of authors, and then adding their highly authoritative commentary and analysis. A must read for anybody seriously interested in ASEAN." - Hall Hill, H.W. Arndt Professor of Southeast Asian Economies, Australian National University
55 citations
Book•
19 Sep 2006
TL;DR: In this article, the former ASEAN secretary-general has discussed the organization from the inside, through controversial or perplexing issues such as the "ASEAN Way", the accession of the new members, including Myanmar, the principle of "non-interference", regional security, regional economic integration, the haze and SARS, and AseAN's future.
Abstract: Not just another book on ASEAN, this volume reappraises the organization from the inside, through controversial or perplexing issues such as the "ASEAN Way", the accession of the new members, including Myanmar, the principle of "non-interference", regional security, regional economic integration, the haze and SARS, and ASEAN's future.Written by a key player, the former ASEAN Secretary-General, this book will illuminate the inner workings of the key Southeast Asian regional institution. It is a must-read for journalists, policy-makers, political scientists and others who need an insiders' view on how ASEAN has evolved, how it operates and whether it will remain relevant in the evolving Asia Pacific and global order.
48 citations
Abstract: ��� ASEAN has come a long way since its founding in 1967. It has achieved a certain degree of political cohesion on some regional and international issues. It has helped keep the peace among its members. It has adopted norms for inter-state relations and managed to get others to accede to those norms. It has healed the divisions in Southeast Asia. It has served as the core of regionalism in East Asia and the Asia Pacific. ASEAN has reduced or abolished tariffs on much intraASEAN trade and committed its members to other measures for the integration of the regional economy. It has established modes of cooperation in dealing with regional problems. However, ASEAN has fallen short of the ambitions that it has proclaimed for itself, particularly in terms of driving regionalism and regional economic integration. A major reason for this is the fact that political cohesion and economic integration are pursued independently of each other. Here, regional institutions could help in formulating, for the memberstates’ adoption, a regional outlook and coordinating politics and economics as a coherent whole.
47 citations
28 Nov 2005
TL;DR: In this paper, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies has put together some ideas for the proposed ASEAN Charter, which are meant for the use, as they see fit, of those who may be involved in the drafting of the charter, including the Eminent persons group that has been formed to advise the leaders.
Abstract: In this booklet, the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies has put together some ideas for the proposed ASEAN Charter. The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations had endorsed the concept of a charter for the association on the conviction that such a document would help in making ASEAN a more robust force for peace and stability, a more deeply integrated and more competitive economic community, a more effective instrument for regional cooperation, and a worthier vessel for the hopes of Southeast Asias people. The ideas in the booklet are meant for the use, as they see fit, of those who may be involved in the drafting of the charter, including the Eminent Persons Group that has been formed to advise the leaders. The ideas were generated in a series of small gatherings at ISEAS that culminated in a workshop among scholars and thinkers from within and outside ISEAS, from Singapore and from elsewhere in the region. All were equipped with ample knowledge of ASEAN. All were imbued with faith in ASEANs possibilities.
23 citations
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2,385 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that Southeast Asian countries do not want to choose between the two major powers, the United States and China, and instead try to influence the shape of the new regional order.
Abstract: The small and medium-sized states in Southeast Asia have faced significant geostrategic changes with the end of the Cold War and the rise of China. Over the last decade, scholars have debated how these countries would cope with growing Chinese power, and how their relations with the other major powers in the region would change. Some analysts have suggested that the region is shifting toward a more China-centered order, but this view is premature. Eschewing the simple dichotomy of balancing versus bandwagoning, Southeast Asian countries do not want to choose between the two major powers, the United States and China. This avoidance strategy is not merely tactical or time-buying; instead, Southeast Asian states have actively tried to influence the shape of the new regional order. Key Southeast Asian states are pursuing two main pathways to order in the region: the “omni-enmeshment” of major powers and complex balance of influence. They have helped to produce an interim power distribution outcome, which is a...
309 citations
Posted Content•
TL;DR: The authors argues that the window of opportunity for East Asian 'vision' was missed; what East Asia needs now is "management" not vision, and proposes a "New East Asian Regional Management Effort" with reinforced ASEAN+3 being the most likely candidate for the job.
Abstract: The paper argues that East Asian regionalism is fragile since (i) each nation's industrial competitiveness depends on the smooth functioning of 'Factory Asia' - in particular on intra-regional trade; (ii) the unilateral tariff-cutting that created 'Factory Asia' is not subject to WTO discipline (bindings); (iii) there is no 'top-level management' to substitute for WTO discipline, i.e. to ensure that bilateral trade tensions - tensions that are inevitable in East Asia - do not spillover into region-wide problems due to lack of cooperation and communication. This paper argues that the window of opportunity for East Asian 'vision' was missed; what East Asia needs now is 'management' not vision. East Asia should launch a 'New East Asian Regional Management Effort' with a reinforced ASEAN+3 being the most likely candidate for the job. The first priority should be to bind the region's unilateral tariff cuts in the WTO.
308 citations
29 Feb 2012
TL;DR: The Association of Southeast Asia (ASA) as discussed by the authors is an economic and political alliance of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand, which reorganized itself as ASEAN by inviting Indonesia and Singapore as new members.
Abstract: ASEAN is an acronym for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a geopolitical and economic organization of ten Southeast Asian countries. In 1967, the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA), an economic and political alliance of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Thailand, reorganized itself as ASEAN by inviting Indonesia and Singapore as new members. The five founding countries signed the Bangkok Declaration with the aim of accelerating economic growth, social progress, and cultural development in Southeast Asia. In 1984, Brunei Darussalam, the sixth Member State, joined ASEAN, and the remaining four member states, Viet Nam, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Cambodia, joined in 1995, 1997, and 1999.
Keywords:
geopolitics;
regionalism
304 citations
TL;DR: The authors argues that the norm has never been absolute, but has rather been upheld or ignored in line with the interests of the region's dominant social forces, and argues that non-interference is also criticised for retarding ASEAN from taking meaningful action over economic crises, problematic members like Myanmar, and transnational security threats.
Abstract: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is widely supposed by theorists and commentators of many persuasions to have elevated the principle of absolute non-interference in the internal affairs of states into a central pillar of Southeast Asian regionalism. Non-interference is also criticised for retarding ASEAN from taking meaningful action over economic crises, problematic members like Myanmar, and transnational security threats. This article critiques this consensus, arguing that the norm has never been absolute, but has rather been upheld or ignored in line with the interests of the region's dominant social forces. While the principle formally remains in place despite such challenges and serious instances of violation, it is now subject to competing demands and contestation.
101 citations