Abstract
This chapter traces the normative discourses surrounding the founding of the EC and ASEAN. Regional boundaries and the relations between intra- and extra-regional actors were central themes of these initial institution building discourses. In Europe, tensions between integrationist and nationalist conceptions of imperialism shaped the debates on regional organization after the Second World War. This conflict crystallized in diverging visions for the European Communities’ relations with African countries on the level of secondary institutions. In Southeast Asia, a broad agreement among the governments of the newly independent states emerged to institutionalize principles of nonintervention and peaceful dispute settlement on the level of primary institutions. However, the divergent strategic interests between states with security ties to former colonial powers and strictly non-aligned governments impeded the development of a stronger normative consensus regarding the external relations of regional states. This problem significantly shaped the early years of Southeast Asian regionalism and inscribed an institutional compromise in ASEAN that would have a long-lasting influence on its future trajectory. Efforts to come to terms with the lingering influence of colonialism are thus tangible in both regions. The normative tensions and contestation accompanying these struggles complicated the establishment of regional organizations and had a crucial influence on their institutional pathways.
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Notes
- 1.
This turn towards the regional level is not unique to Europe and Southeast Asia, as is evident from the spread of pan-Africanist, pan-Arabist and pan-Asianist ideas during and after the Second World War.
- 2.
The term overseas territories was used as a catch-all concept for the different peripheral territories with varying degrees of dependence, ranging from effectively self-governing dominions to colonies under direct rule.
- 3.
Italy, by contrast, supported the resolution, which points to crumbling intra-European support for continued colonial adventures.
- 4.
These were Belgium, France, Portugal, Spain and the UK, all of which were retaining colonial dependencies at the time of the adoption.
- 5.
These were Burma, Cochinchina, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, the Malayan Union, the Philippines, Siam and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
- 6.
The conference was attended by representatives from Afghanistan, Australia, Burma, Ceylon, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen. Envoys from China, Nepal, New Zealand and Siam participated as observers (International Organization 1949).
- 7.
The official title of the meeting was Southeast Asian Prime Ministers Conference. It was attended by representatives from Burma, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
- 8.
The most important multilateral of these, SEATO, is briefly discussed below.
- 9.
The quotes are taken from Jorgensen-Dahl (1982, pp. 73–74).
- 10.
A similar ambiguity was later adopted in ASEAN’s Declaration on a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality (ZOPFAN) of 1971, which rejected great power interference in the region but stopped short of formalizing actual neutralization and was declaratory, rather than legal, in nature (Narine 2002, pp. 19–22).
- 11.
Art. 41 para. 3 of the ASEAN Charter (2007) demands that ASEAN be the ‘primary driving force in regional arrangements that it initiates and maintain its centrality in regional cooperation and community building’. The Concept Paper of the ASEAN Regional Forum (1995, Art. 3–4) ascribes to ASEAN the ‘obligation to be the primary driving force of the ARF’.
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Spandler, K. (2019). Founding Years: Building Regional Organizations in Postcolonial Spaces. In: Regional Organizations in International Society . Palgrave Studies in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96896-4_4
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