The Pros And Cons Of ASEAN

It is no secret that Egypts new Pharaoh was threatened by the children of Israel and his enslavement and back breaking labour did not stop the Jews from multiplying. For this reason our Pharaoh also commanded that all new born Jewish males must be cast into the Nile.

Globalization has become one of the most influential forces in the twentieth century. International integration of world views, products, trade and ideas has caused a variety of states to blur the lines of their borders and be open to an international perspective. The merger of the Europeans Union, the ASEAN group in the Pacific and NAFTA in North America is reflective of the notion of globalized trade. The North American Free Trade Agreement was the largest free trade zone in the world at its conception and set an example for the future of liberalized trade. The North American Free Trade Agreement is coming into it's twentieth anniversary on January 1st, 2014. 1 NAFTA not only sought to enhance the trade of goods and services across

The “Pivot to Asia”, or rebalancing, was created as a strategic move to place the United States in the center, of what is recognized as to where the majority of economic and political history will occur in the 21st century. More than half the worlds population resides in Asia, making its development essential to American economic and strategic interests (Lily Kuo, 2015). Benefits of the “Pivot” for the US will greatly increase economic, diplomatic, development, and security ties with the region, and in part be advantageous domestically. Over the years, strong ties have been implemented and strengthened through alliances, trade, values, immigration and family links. There is concern that the “Pivot to Asia”, has been neglected, however, there

ASEAN was officially founded in August 1967 when five founding member states jointly signed the Bangkok declaration. Since then ASEAN experienced number of threats, such as security threat in cold war, economic and financial threat in 1997 East Asia Economic crisis, and now being in the security dilemma between the United States and the People’s Republic of China, prominent major powers attempting to dominate the region, despite all the threat, ASEAN set its goal to become a community in December 2015 which has lot of potential to contribute to the world stage but it also has countless number of challenges, mainly caused by its diversities, nationalism and lack of

ASEAN has played a key role in managing the disputes over the South China Sea (SCS) as part of its commitment to promote peace and stability in the region. The disputes were related to territorial claims over Spratly and Paracel islands and maritime boundaries involving four ASEAN members, namely Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam as well as the People’s Republic of China (and Taiwan). The potential escalation of conflict to open war in the region, due to military build up by China and external intervention by the United States, puts ASEAN into a central position to play its role as an ‘honest broker’ or mediator. The stalemate of discussion over the SCS disputes since the 2012 ASEAN Summit should be an indication for ASEAN to revitalize its role and to start taking serious steps in a diplomatic manner to provide peaceful solution for the conflicts.

South Asian region is considered the heartland of present times owing to its geo-strategic location. Its location has evoked much interest among the major powers of the world. Conventionally, the region of South Asian has served as a hub of attractive economic activity for the other states out of the region. It situated with the South East Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia. These territories are measured quite insightful and purposefully significant regions of the world. China, Central Asia and Russia are all at the north of South Asia. On its south western surface it provides entrée to the Persian Gulf while on south eastern part there is an entrance to the Malaccan passage. Indian Ocean at its south has remained advantageously

The sources of Indonesian maids are “drying up” given that these maids have other choices of employments with higher pay such as Hong Kong and Taiwan. This market force compelled local agencies to plan for increase in salaries for the Indonesian maids to stay competitive. 17 maid agencies are raising the maid’s salaries from S$380 to S$450. However, not all agencies are keen on this pay hike as they doubted the effectiveness in resolving long term problem. The effect of Government’s intervention (as a result of imposing stringent employment requirements and new Employment Agencies Act) may also be the causal factors for the pay hikes. The Association of Employment Agencies have suggested the need to explore non-traditional countries for maids to meet the increasing demands.

     After the tragedies of World War II, European leaders have made striving efforts to prevent such a catastrophic event from occurring on their continent again. The best solution seemed to be highly mechanized cooperation among the highest European powers to assure that future conflict, and perhaps war, could not arise between them. If all the states ran themselves in a manner cooperating with their neighbors, conflict could be avoided. To prevent other nations from not cooperating, treaties and institutions would have to be designed for each area of international interest such as trade, communications, security, and so forth. As the century progressed, more organizations, institutions and associations were

All SAARC members apart from sharing same history have some other shared interests and problems. Locating in South Asia which is world’s most densely populated and one fertile region, these countries have common tradition, dress, food, culture and political aspects. And most importantly these eight countries share common problems and issues like poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition, natural disasters, internal conflicts, industrial and technological backwardness, low GDP and poor socio-economic condition and efforts for uplifting living standards. Apart from working together to track and solve these problems together, these nations also desire of promoting peace, stability, amity and progress in the region through strict adherence to the principles of the United Nations Charter and Non-Alignment, particularly respect for principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrally, national independence, non-use of force and non-interference of internal affairs of other states and peaceful settlement of all disputes.

“”The deadline set for 31 December 2015 for the “full” integration of the member states into the ASEAN Economic Community seems to have been more a symbolic onset of formal obligations in a long process where various policy and industry commitments have been made. The ASEAN Economic Community 2015 Blueprint was worked on from 2008 until 2015. It described four large ASEAN goals. Those goals were (1) Single Market and Production Base, (2) Competitive Economic Region (3) Equitable Economic Development and (4) Integration Into the Global Economy. (AECat-a-glance-2016_web_version2.pdf )

The study structure of this report starts with the background history of ASEAN countries in which five leaders from Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore- sat down together in Department of Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok, Thailand and signed the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) Declaration in the Foreign Affairs building in Bangkok (Thailand) and what is the main reason is behind to make ASEAN countries group? What is the benefits for Asia Pacific? What is the aims for ASEAN free trade?

The association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was established on 8th August 1967 in Bangkok by the Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines and Singapore.

Today, there are many countries that establish organisations among themselves in order to protect their interest and gain benefits. One of the best examples of organisation form by nations would be the European Union (EU). It is an organisation that was formed by several European nations in order to attain economic stability, avoid conflicts as well as for political coalition. Another would be the Asian South East Asia Nation or better known as ASEAN. ASEAN is an organization that represents most of the countries that is located in the South East Asian region. It started as the Association of Southeast Asia (ASA) in 1961 by Malaysia (known as Malaya before 1963), Philippines and Thailand. It became ASEAN in 1967 after Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines and Indonesia signed the ASEAN Declaration. At first, it was formed as an act of prevention from any communist led insurgency and serve as “serve as a security community, promoting social and political stability during a turbulent time in the region” as according to Sheila Smith, former Council of Foreign Relations officer (Bennett, Ginsberg, Xu). As time grows however, ASEAN becomes more important to the region and now, it consists of 10 nation state members from the South East Asia region.

In the light of current global economic surroundings, which have been noticeably affected by the process of globalization, the interdependence of underdeveloped countries is underscored. Regional collaboration is indeed increasing at backwards area. South-South cooperation eventually promotes the process of regional integration.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formed by Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand in 1967. Today, it consists of 10- member states with the addition Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. The region now moves forward for deeper integration of creating one community in terms of political- security, economic and socio-cultural aspects. As ASEAN continually evolves, it still upholds its defining principle, the “ASEAN Way”.