Ritual and Region
The Invention of ASEAN

Argues that ASEAN endures as it serves state interest through the creation of a shared ritual and symbolic framework.

Mathew Davies (Author)

9781108457965, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 November 2018

75 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 0.5 cm, 0.14 kg

Why has ASEAN endured and why do members, many of whom remain comparatively weak and poor, continue to invest in the regional project? Existing answers, either that ASEAN is meaningless or that it has transformed regional affairs through the creation of shared values are both misplaced. Neither argument is empirically plausible. Instead, this Element argues that ASEAN has and continues to serve state interest through the creation of a shared ritual and symbolic framework. This framework has mitigated regional tension through the performance of regionalism, but has not fundamentally addressed the sources of that tension.

1. Introduction
2. Inventing ASEAN – 1945?1997
3. Saving regionalism – 1997?2017
4. Choosing regionalism.

Subject Areas: Settlement of international disputes [LBH], International trade [KCLT], International institutions [JPSN], Geopolitics [JPSL], Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], Asian history [HBJF]