A Status-Based Explanation of ASEAN’s Response to the Changing World Order

Abstract

More than any other region, and at a faster pace, Southeast Asia has become a subject and venue for dynamic strategic competition between the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China for defining the world order. The situation is increasingly orienting global and local foreign policy thinking, foreign policy action and foreign policy analysis. Drawing on primary sources, this paper formulates and tests the hypothesis of ’status-sustenance’ in the form of a case study on Southeast Asian regionalism. The paper first reviews the relevant theoretical literature, then posits the hypothesis. The second half of the paper examines the capacity of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to stabilize great power relations as a social construct, followed by an analysis of ASEAN’s ’status-performance’.