PYQ Vault · Paper 2 · Regionalisation of World Politics
Critically analyse the role of ASEAN in the promotion of regional peace and security through economic cooperation and trade.
How the answer moves
The flow snapshot — the routes in, the body, the counter-view and the routes out.
Flow snapshot — how the answer moves
Intro routes
R1 Mitrany’s “philosophy of peace” = the premise the question tests —. ASEAN reverses it → politics settled before economics / R2 Bangkok Declaration 1967 = Cold War security front, not a trade bloc → trade widened a peace norms had already created → could not secure it alone
Body flow
ASEAN Way (consensus, non-interference, sovereignty) → ZOPFAN 1971+ TAC 1976 → no inter-member war → Fisher: “Balkans of Asia” → zone of peace → Acharya: norm localisation + norm subsidiarity → AFTA 1992 → AEC single market & production base → Keohane: interdependence raises cost of conflict → big economies outside → trade turned outward: ARF, ASEAN Plus Three, EAS, RCEP → APSC Blueprint 2015
Counter-view
no Haas spillover → ASEAN stays intergovernmental → non-tariff barriers, low intra- ASEAN trade → consensus stalls on South China Sea and Myanmar after the 2021 coup → wider engagement pulls US-China rivalry in
Conclusion routes
% R1 Mahbubani & Sng, The ASEAN Miracle: A Catalyst for Peace → potential holds even under power politics → too early to write offthe record / R2 trade widened the zone of peace, consultation keeps it → economics is the instrument of ASEAN’s security order, norms are its foundation
Model answer
Handwritten, in the form it would be written in the examination hall.
