40 years of ASEAN: perspectives, performance and lessons for change¹

1 The articles assembled in this issue of The Pacific Review were first presented and discussed at the conference ‘40 Years of ASEAN: Performance, Lessons and Perspectives’, jointly organized by the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, Munich, Germany, and the Department of Political Science of the University of Freiburg. The editors gratefully acknowledge the generous funding and the organizational support of the foundation. They thank in particular the foundation's chairman of the board of directors, Mr Jürgen Chrobog, and the head of the foundation's Asia division, Mrs Barbara Müller. They also gratefully acknowledge the proof-reading, editing and comments by Mikko Huotari, Benjamin Köhler, Julia Turchenko, Sandra Schäfer and Jan-Simon Dörflinger.

Abstract

In this introduction, the editors trace the increasing theoretical diversity of ASEAN research and discuss the contributions to this issue against the current state of the art. Contributions confirm the post-Asian crisis advancement of constructivist scholarship, but by also analyzing ASEAN from the Liberal and English school perspectives, the articles assembled in this issue nevertheless stand for theoretical pluralism. This article continues to open a governance perspective and, against this background, attests to ASEAN's marked success in pacifying an erstwhile turbulent world region but also to ASEAN's much more ambiguous record in responding to the new challenges associated with globalization.

Keywords:

• IR theory
• ASEAN
• regional governance

Acknowledgments

Address: Seminar für Wissenschaftliche Politik, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Rempartstr. 15, D-79085 Freiburg, Germany.

Dr. Anja Jetschke is Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at Ohio State University. Her previous position was Assistant Professor for Political Science at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Her research interests include human rights in Southeast Asia, constructivist theories in IR and the international relations of the Asia-Pacific. She is the author of ‘Linking the unlinkable? International norms and nationalism in Indonesia and the Philippines’, in Thomas Risse, Stephen Ropp and Kathryin Sikkink, The Power of Human Rights: International Norms and Domestic Change, Cambridge University Press, 1999, and ‘Arguments Matter! Transnational Human Rights Advocacy and Human Rights Change in Indonesia and the Philippines (1975–2006)’ (forthcoming).

Addresses: Mershon Center for International Security Studies, Ohio State University, 1501 Neil Ave, Columbus, OH43201-2602, USA; Seminar für Wissenschaftliche Politik, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Rempartstr. 15, D-79085 Freiburg, Germany.

Notes

*Dr. Jürgen Rüland is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Political Science at the University of Freiburg, Germany.

1 The articles assembled in this issue of The Pacific Review were first presented and discussed at the conference ‘40 Years of ASEAN: Performance, Lessons and Perspectives’, jointly organized by the BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt, Munich, Germany, and the Department of Political Science of the University of Freiburg. The editors gratefully acknowledge the generous funding and the organizational support of the foundation. They thank in particular the foundation's chairman of the board of directors, Mr Jürgen Chrobog, and the head of the foundation's Asia division, Mrs Barbara Müller. They also gratefully acknowledge the proof-reading, editing and comments by Mikko Huotari, Benjamin Köhler, Julia Turchenko, Sandra Schäfer and Jan-Simon Dörflinger.

2 Martin Jones and Smith (2007); Jetschke and Rüland (2008 forthcoming).

3 For an excellent discussion of these issues and an argument for eclecticism, see (Katzenstein and Sil 2004).

4 On the fight against terrorism, see Emmers (2008 forthcoming).