Abstract
Focusing on the role of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), ASEM’s only institution, this chapter scrutinizes the achievements of ASEM’s social/cultural dimension. It looks at ASEF’s history, development, and relation to the official ASEM process. The chapter analyzes the way ASEF has defined cultural cooperation, and critically evaluates the foundation’s role as a cultural broker. While highly appraising ASEF’s role in ASEM’s third pillar, the analysis also points out several weaknesses, challenges, and limitations that ASEF will need to address in the future. The chapter argues that ASEM draws its strengths from ASEF’s success, turning the cultural pillar into a “signature” inter-regional cooperation that buttresses ASEM’s relevance and sets it apart from other regional and transregional institutions.
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Le Thu, H. (2018). The Value-Added ASEM: The Socio-Cultural Dialogue. In: Gaens, B., Khandekar, G. (eds) Inter-Regional Relations and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59764-9_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59764-9_5
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