{"id":3566,"date":"2026-08-11T22:12:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T16:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/notes\/asean\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T23:02:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T17:32:05","slug":"asean","status":"publish","type":"psir_note","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/notes\/asean\/","title":{"rendered":"ASEAN"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"n-wrap\">\n<div class=\"n-shell\">\n<div class=\"n-crumb\"><a href=\"\/psir\/psir-notes\/\">PSIR Notes<\/a><span class=\"sep\">\u203a<\/span><a href=\"\/psir\/psir-notes\/#ii-a\">II-A Comparative Political Analysis and International Politics<\/a><span class=\"sep\">\u203a<\/span><span>ASEAN<\/span><\/div>\n<header class=\"n-head\">\n<div class=\"n-eyebrow\">Paper I \u00b7 Comparative Political Analysis and International Politics<\/div>\n<h1 class=\"n-title\">ASEAN<\/h1>\n<div class=\"n-syl\"><b>Syllabus \u00b7 Paper II-A \u00b7 10<\/b> \u2014 Regionalisation of World Politics : EU, <span class=\"cur\">ASEAN<\/span>, APEC, AARC, NAFTA.<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"n-grid\">\n  <main class=\"n-body\"><\/p>\n<h3 id=\"asean\">ASEAN<\/h3>\n<p>Promotes economic and political integration and regional peace in Southeast Asia \u2014 motto <span class=\"n-term\">\u201cOne Vision, One Identity, One Community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">Foundation and the ASEAN Way<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Established by the <span class=\"n-term\">Bangkok Declaration (1967)<\/span> to build a common front against communism; a Cold War product initially focused on security. Headquarters Jakarta; three pillars \u2014 Political-Security, Economic, Socio-Cultural.<\/li>\n<li>The <span class=\"n-term\">ASEAN Way<\/span> \u2014 consensus over majority rule, non-interference, respect for sovereignty; grounded in <span class=\"n-term\">Panchsheel<\/span> and portrayed as \u201cAsian values.\u201d Entrenched by the <span class=\"n-term\">Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC), 1976<\/span> and <span class=\"n-term\">ZOPFAN (1971)<\/span>.<\/li>\n<li>Economic integration \u2014 <span class=\"n-term\">AFTA (1992)<\/span> cut tariffs and lifted intra-regional trade (<span class=\"n-sch\">Robert Keohane<\/span>\u2019s neo-liberal institutionalism); <span class=\"n-term\">AEC<\/span> single market and production base; <span class=\"n-term\">RCEP<\/span> extends integration to major Asia-Pacific economies. Wider architecture \u2014 ARF, ASEAN Plus Three, East Asia Summit, ADMM+. Own <span class=\"n-term\">Charter (2008)<\/span>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">EU vs ASEAN<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"n-tw\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Basis<\/th>\n<th>EU<\/th>\n<th>ASEAN<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Character<\/td>\n<td>Supranational \u2014 binding law, single market, monetary union<\/td>\n<td>Intergovernmental \u2014 prioritises sovereignty<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Decisions<\/td>\n<td>Qualified majority<\/td>\n<td>Consensus (the ASEAN Way)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Currency<\/td>\n<td>The euro<\/td>\n<td>No single currency \u2014 currency-swap arrangements<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Diversity &amp; engine<\/td>\n<td>Franco-German engine; urgency of overcoming their hostility<\/td>\n<td>Wide diversity (Singapore vs Myanmar); largest economies (China, Japan, India, South Korea) outside; no dominant engine<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">As a third-world model, successes and challenges<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span class=\"n-sch\">Kishore Mahbubani<\/span> (with <span class=\"n-sch\">Jeffery Sng<\/span>), <em>The ASEAN Miracle<\/em> \u2014 ASEAN practises <span class=\"n-term\">\u201cPragmatic Regionalism\u201d<\/span>, building its own model rather than imitating the EU; a \u201cbeacon of hope\u201d and an example of <span class=\"n-term\">soft regionalism<\/span>.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"n-sch\">C. A. Fisher<\/span> \u2014 ASEAN defied all scepticism; the region once called the <span class=\"n-term\">\u201cBalkans of Asia\u201d<\/span> became a zone of peace. No war between members since founding. <span class=\"n-sch\">Amitav Acharya<\/span> \u2014 <span class=\"n-term\">norm localisation<\/span> and <span class=\"n-term\">norm subsidiarity<\/span> explain its durability.<\/li>\n<li>Challenges \u2014 consensus can block decisive action (Rohingya crisis, Myanmar); persistent non-tariff barriers and low intra-ASEAN trade; US-China rivalry and Indo-Pacific militarisation (QUAD, AUKUS); the South China Sea dispute; the February 2021 Myanmar coup and a stalled five-point consensus.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">India and ASEAN \u2014 the Act East ladder<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"n-term\">Sectoral dialogue to strategic partner.<\/span> <span class=\"n-term\">1992<\/span> (Sectoral dialogue partner) \u2192 <span class=\"n-term\">1996<\/span> (Full dialogue partner) \u2192 <span class=\"n-term\">2002<\/span> (Summit-level partner) \u2192 <span class=\"n-term\">2012<\/span> (Strategic partner) \u2192 <span class=\"n-term\">Trade<\/span> (AIFTA (2010), services (2015))<\/p>\n<div class=\"n-next\"><a href=\"\/psir\/notes\/european-union\/\"><em>Previous<\/em><b>European Union<\/b><\/a><a class=\"r\" href=\"\/psir\/notes\/apec\/\"><em>Next<\/em><b>APEC<\/b><\/a><\/div>\n<p><\/main><\/p>\n<aside class=\"n-rail\">\n<h4>On this page<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"#asean\">ASEAN<\/a><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ASEAN for the UPSC PSIR optional \u2014 PSIR Notes \u203a II-A Comparative Political Analysis and International Politics \u203a ASEAN Paper I \u00b7 Comparative Political Analysis and International Po<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"fx_note_key":"II-A.10.2","fx_note_sec":"II-A","fx_note_point":"10","fx_note_desc":"ASEAN for the UPSC PSIR optional \u2014 PSIR Notes \u203a II-A Comparative Political Analysis and International Politics \u203a ASEAN Paper I \u00b7 Comparative Political Analysis and International Po","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3566","psir_note","type-psir_note","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/psir_note\/3566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/psir_note"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/psir_note"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/psir_note\/3566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3750,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/psir_note\/3566\/revisions\/3750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/psir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}