This Open Access book explains ASEAN’s strategic role in managing great power politics in East Asia. Constructing a theory of institutional strategy, this book argues that the regional security ...institutions in Southeast Asia, ASEAN and ASEAN-led institutions have devised their own institutional strategies vis-à-vis the South China Sea and navigated the great-power politics since the 1990s. ASEAN proliferated new security institutions in the 1990s and 2000s that assumed a different functionality, a different geopolitical scope, and thus a different institutional strategy. In so doing, ASEAN formed a “strategic institutional web” that nurtured a quasi-division of labor among the institutions to maintain relative stability in the South China Sea. Unlike the conventional analysis on ASEAN, this study disaggregates “ASEAN” as a collective regional actor into specific individual institutions—ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, ASEAN Summit, ASEAN-China dialogues, ASEAN Regional Forum, East Asia Summit, and ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting and ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting-Plus—and explains how each of these institutions has devised and/or shifted its institutional strategy to curb great powers’ ambition in dominating the South China Sea while navigating great power competition. The book sheds light on the strategic potential and limitations of ASEAN and ASEAN-led security institutions, offers implications for the future role of ASEAN in the Indo-Pacific region, and provides an alternative understanding of the strategic utilities of regional security institutions.
This paper aims to contribute to an understanding about the major changes in China-ASEAN economic relations after establishment of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) in 2010. First, China's ...merchandize trade balance with ASEAN has shifted from deficit to surplus since 2012. This reflects China's improving comparative advantage in manufacturing production vis-à-vis ASEAN as a whole. Second, with China's wage hike, ASEAN investors can no longer take advantage of China's cheap labor force. Concurrently, China's investment in ASEAN has been increasing and become more diversified, ranging from energy to manufacturing and services. Singapore has remained the most important investment destination for Chinese investors and the largest foreign investor in China among ASEAN countries. Third, China has comparative advantages in providing construction, telecommunications, computer and information services and other business services to ASEAN. On the other hand, ASEAN, led by Singapore, has opportunities in the financial services and tourism markets in China. Finally, the development of economic regionalism, notably the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and Trans-Pacific Partnership, will remain critical for the CAFTA's relevance in regional economic integration, as well as China-ASEAN relations in the future.
Globalization is one of the keys related to the success of the country's economy. This study aims to find out how globalization affects economic growth. The globalization index used in this study ...includes economic globalization, political globalization, and social globalization. The object of this study was 10 ASEAN countries from 2013 to 2019. The method used in this study was Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) using the EViews 10 application. The research procedure goes through several stages, including classical assumption testing consisting of normality tests, multicollinearity detection, heteroskedasticity tests, and autocorrelation tests. Furthermore, testing for the best model selection is carried out, and hypothesis testing is carried out. The results of this study show that globalization can improve the economies of 10 ASEAN countries. This can be seen in economic, political, and social globalization, both partially and simultaneously having a significant positive effect on economic growth. Finally, this study provides policy recommendations for ASEAN countries related to globalization and economic development.
Since it was founded in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has attracted both sceptics and proponents. With Southeast Asia's economy growing rapidly and tied into all parts of ...the global economy and the region geopolitically important to the world's major powers, how ASEAN manages its internal affairs and East Asian relations is crucial. The differences in how sceptics and proponents perceive ASEAN, and why they take up such contrasting positions, need to be fully appreciated as scholars and commentators review and assess ASEAN's performance. This analysis uses three analytical criteria - effectiveness, legitimacy and efficiency - to juxtapose and evaluate the competing arguments of the two approaches so as to better understand how and why sceptics and proponents can examine the same institutions and events and reach very different conclusions.
This article examines the relationships between extreme poverty, economic growth, and inequality, assesses if changes in inequality dampen the impact of income on extreme poverty, and determines the ...magnitude of the inequality growth trade-off index in Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras. A country-specific ARDL bound regression was conducted. The findings indicate the presence of direct and indirect dampening impacts of changes in inequality on income growth and extreme poverty reduction. The magnitude of the inequality growth trade-off- index indicates whether to prioritize growth and/or inequality reducing policies. This means that the higher the inequality, as in Honduras, the higher the economic or average income growth rate required to compensate for the increase in inequality to achieve a given level of extreme poverty reduction. Accordingly, there is no one-size-fits-all policy approach to tackling extreme poverty.
The natural resource curse hypothesis is largely discussed in the empirical literature; however, little is known regarding the financial resource curse hypothesis through the integration of business ...regulations. Also, most empirical research in the literature has used conventional estimation methods. To address these research gaps, this paper examines the financial resource curse hypothesis by scrutinizing the linkage between financial development and natural resources rent from 1984 to 2018. Empirical results validate the financial resource curse hypothesis. Business regulations encourage financial development and neutralize the negative consequences of natural resources on financial development. It implies that conducive business regulations mitigate the financial resource curse in ASEAN countries. This condition may be considered essential for the sustainability of natural resource rent-related advancements in financial development, and appropriate policy recommendations could be put forward.
•Examined financial resource curse hypothesis in ASEAN countries.•Scrutinized the linkage between financial development and natural resources.•The cross-sectional augmented ARDL model is used for analysis purposes.•Results validate the financial resource curse hypothesis.•Business regulations moderate financial development and natural resources linkage.
The complex global value chains underlying the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) raise an important question on the macroeconomic (output, inflation, exchange rate, and interest ...rate) exposure of ASEAN to output shocks in the non‐ASEAN‐RCEP members, within the context of expanded regional architecture. This paper uses quarterly data from 1995 to 2018 to estimate a global vector autoregressive (GVAR) model, specially constructed for the RCEP. The GVAR model disentangles the effects and spillovers from output shocks originating in the non‐ASEAN‐RCEP through various trade channels – direct and indirect, and total exports and foreign value‐added (FVA). The model also quantifies the impact of global (the price of oil and materials) shocks on ASEAN through trade linkages. The output shocks in the non‐ASEAN‐RCEP have persistent effects on output growth in ASEAN when transmitted through the intermediary FVA channel than the export channel. The FVA channel is also important for propagating global shocks in the form of oil and material prices. The findings confirm that output in ASEAN is also highly exposed to output shocks originating in the non‐ASEAN‐RCEP economies. The FVA trade channel is vital for explaining the spillovers from the regional output shocks and global price shocks.
