<TITLE: The Social Construction of Regions
ACADEMIC DOMAIN: social sciences
DISCIPLINE: international relations
EVENT TYPE: seminar presentation
FILE ID: USEMP03C
NOTES: continuation of and continued in USEMD110, seminar also includes presentations USEMP03A-B, mostly read from notes

RECORDING DURATION: 17 min 48 sec

RECORDING DATE: 9.12.2004

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: 11

NUMBER OF SPEAKERS: 1

S6: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Finnish; ACADEMIC ROLE: undergraduate; GENDER: female; AGE: 17-23

SU: unidentified speaker>


<S6> okay so we're moving on to asia now and i'm going to talk about the association of south-east asian nations which is ASEAN and er how it has against many odds constructed er itself a common identity and constructed as a security re- region so that's what i'm mainly focusing on here , and first i'd like to tell bit about the background and history er so ASEAN was er established in 1967 in bangkok thailand by five original member countries which were indonesia malesia philippines singapore and thailand and er then a bit later in 1997 new members laos and myanmar so , former burma joined and er then in 1999 cambodia also joined , and er well here in the 60s there were not such high goals in in the co- cooperation er and the original idea of the founding of ASEAN was ensuring peace in the region and er the ASEAN declaration er speaks only of er this is a quote <READING ALOUD> respecting er respect of justices and the rule of law and the adherence of the principles of the united nations charter </READING ALOUD> and er well it's quite understandable that the leaders didn't have very high goals because er they didn't want ASEAN to be mistaken for some military grouping er that there had been many many of these in the area before and some of the predecessors in the area had been sort of military based , but ASEAN was all about peace from the beginning on , and er the two most important aims in the ASEAN declaration have to do with economic and se- security cooperation , and erm well i'm mainly focusing on the second one er so which is promoting regional peace and stability through inter-governmental cooperation , and er the organisation points out respect for justice and the rule of law in the relationship among countries in the region and er mutual respect for sove- sovere- sovereignty how do you pronounce that sovereignty , @okay@ and er territorial independence and national identity are very important for ASEAN and er and although the organisation is built on cooperation the er independency and er not interfering fr- to others' internal affairs have been very important for ASEAN or the south-east asian countries . and erm on 27th november 1971 er the ASEAN members met in kuala lumpur and signed a zone of peace freedom and neutrality declaration which is called ZOPHAN and this declaration was er is considered one of the milestones and most important sort of symbols of ASEAN's development , after all this was only five years after the start of the whole organisation and er already then it started to develop towards a security community , and er , five years later er in an ASEAN summit in bali indonesia er there was the mai- (xx) development in regional cooperation er when asia ASEAN leaders signed three major documents <READING ALOUD> the declaration of ASEAN concord the treaty of amity and cooperation in south-east asia and agre- agreement of establishing the ASEAN secretariat </READING ALOUD> , and these were very important because they increased the political cooperation in the area and paved the way for stronger sense of community , and er it also adopted some principles of st- regional stability and a programme of action for political cooperation so stronger political cooperations . and erm , ASEAN area has er developed its defence cooperation or cooperation in these military things also but that's not very central central to them and the defence er cooperation is mainly bilateral not multilateral so it's not so much er have to do with this community building , and er <READING ALOUD> but despite the inter-governmental and sovere- sovereignty based character of ASEAN the policy makers of the organisation han- have accepted the growing need for transparency within the region , ASEAN has launched an initiative to ve- develop a wider multilateral dialogue in the asia pacific region and the organisation brought security i- issues formally to the a- agenda in its summit meeting in singapore in 1994 </READING ALOUD> and so the main points there were this confidence building throughout the r- asia pacific region and preventative diplomacy . and er there has also been later on greater cooperation on peace keeping projess projects . but then er . the original idea of a security comi- community comes from realism which i well i personally wouldn't think first about realism about with building a community but that's true and in this form security commini- er community is er well this is a quote from <NAME> er <READING ALOUD> based on continuing practice of strategic interaction and the understanding of how to realise the nation's interests under conditions of conflicts </READING ALOUD> so still you can sts- see the realistic point of vi- view that you are mainly interested about your own interests or your own nation's interests not so much about er making a community with er common common sort of values and other things , and er , <NAME> was one of the first people challenging these realist beliefs <READING ALOUD> he sees international relations more as a process of of learning and formation of communities and <NAME> thought that the area sustainable for community should be at least have some level er of integration already and some have some formal and if- informal institutions for security cooperation and a sense of community in the region </READING ALOUD> and er and a mo- one of the most important things in creating a security community according to <NAME> was necessarity for democracy . and er the ideal of security community is based on collective identity in many ways , and er it's more than just a regime of of rules and laws that's is used in int- international cooperation and er <READING ALOUD> to clari- qualify as a security community institutions and regimes must be accompanied by a sense of community and common values and symbols , and er when often these security regimes have sort of short term goals a security community shares fundamental and long term goals and common ideas . er but <NAME> and his associates never imagined that their idea of er security community would succeed in in er the developing world </READING ALOUD> and er well this was no wonder because <READING ALOUD> many other researchers didn't think of very highly of the developing world's abilities to create integration or st- strong sense of community because a vast majority of conflicts in the world have taken place in the third world countries and so they didn't make very good candidates for this regionalisation or building of communities in a a st- way that <NAME> had in mind , and er another major factor was of course the undemocratic nature of some of the countries for example here in south asian area </READING ALOUD> for example myanmar and cambodia er vietnam are not very even today not very democratic in nature , but still <READING ALOUD> the member of ASEAN and this area haven't been at war since 1967 so in almost 40 years and ASEAN's record is very important considering the very violent and unstable situations in other developing areas such as parts of africa and central america and southern a- asia , and despites its lack of liberal and democratic values it's undeniable that ASEAN has developed signi- significally towards a security community in recent years , and er the absence of war for like i mentioned almost 40 years poses a challenge to the liberal conception of security communities </READING ALOUD> . and well er how the regionalisation started in ASEAN er it started al- already in the 60s during the time of the cold war , and er it started from a common feeling of ven- venera- ve- @@ well they felt vune- vulnerable [you] </S6>
<SU> [vul-] yeah vulnerable @@ </SU>
<S6> vulnerable @@ five points erm well they had the @same enemy that's what i mean@ and er <READING ALOUD> although the communist threat was a fear factor in most of the world the ASEAN countries didn't really consider that there being their major threat er or security risk but they saw their o- many problems in their own region and er these problems being in the internal er social political and economic conditions that had er formerly caused many conflicts , er mutual cooperation was needed badly in in many areas , and er , so collective identities started to emerge as a process of regional existence in other words as common values in the sense of community . and er there have been later on some important factors shapings ASEAN's collective identity the first one is multilateralism it doesn't er it's not very widely used in security issues but it's very important in other aspects er , and the second one is called development of ASEAN's ground rules for inter-state cooperation so these rules er as i mentioned before include strict non-interference in other members' internal affairs pacific settlement of disputes and respect for others' sovereignty and territorial independence </READING ALOUD> , and third er and here we find the <NAME> or the id- ideas of <NAME> er there can be find some symbols <READING ALOUD> representing collective identity and security affairs and in ASEAN these are called the ASEAN way and the ASEAN spirit er and they are sort of confli- conflict management symbols , and erm the ASEAN way is a nickname for common approach for conflict production which means that ASEAN countries prefo- er prefer more informal than formal institutions so they kind of try to first settle the disputes in more informal informal way </READING ALOUD> and er , they also , well they as <READING ALOUD> they con- consider these formal institutions secondary to the development of the social psychological processes that facilitate conflict management , and another important aspect in in er ASEAN is the principle of conse- consensus so all the decisions in the organisation are strictly made with only consensus </READING ALOUD> so everybody has to agree to these , and er , <READING ALOUD> ASEAN has acted together as a community in some ways in its external relations also while as ASEAN doesn't require democracy from its members as i mentioned vietnam and cambodia and others er non-democratic states such as myanmar and vietnam are equal members er to the democratic ones and er as the ASEAN principle of regional auto- autonomy has been extremely important er there have been , some problems with the cooperation partners such as EU or the USA </READING ALOUD> er because of these and er , and even though <READING ALOUD> in er 1990s all of ASEAN membe- original members didn't agree on for example myanmar's membership they ended up accepting the organ- it in the organisation because they didn't want others to sort of interfere in the business so they're very strict on staying unaffected and er they don't want outside pressure to influence them </READING ALOUD> , and er , well every area or region has its own specific issues and problems of course and for ASEAN er . well , there's a some some problems that er something or have to do with er asian way of thinking and of course their history together er first of all there's a widely er known way of thinking that <READING ALOUD> bilateral agreements and mechanisms are enough to create greater trust and understanding </READING ALOUD> so the multilateral thinking is not all that er popular in every country , and of course these ideas are a great obstacle in developing a community community's security aspects and the , like i mentioned before <READING ALOUD> these countries also prefer informal instead of formal institutions which is sometimes can be seen problematic and distrust towards some other countries is very deep because of their common history </READING ALOUD> and other things and er so this is also causing some problems because the countries don't really trust each other that much , and er , and <READING ALOUD> south-east asian culture traditionally shares a culture of secrecy </READING ALOUD> so the countries keep a lot of information just to themselves and don't share it that much . but then as a conclusion something about ASEAN today and the growing regionalisation there , er <READING ALOUD> although the consensus based decision making is not one of the easiest ones for example institutionalists have noted that it has created a strong base for cooperation which has helped the growth of cooperation in many sectors , ASEAN is widely recognised in the international community as an exam- example of en- enlightened regionalisation (xx) erm in the 1960s and 70s there weren't very high hopes about the security s- situation there and even er foreign minister of singapore er <NAME> er said that the western press had described the countries in the region as forming a row of dominoes which were about to fall on over each other </READING ALOUD> so there weren't very high hopes about this area but still <READING ALOUD> the situation has changed a lot since then in alm- almost 40 years and er south-east asia doesn't suffer from big regional difficulties anymore , it can be described as a quite a stable and prosperous area in the developing world </READING ALOUD> , and er , as a deputy prime minister of malesia points out this is a quote <READING ALOUD> ASEAN has been successful because its members have a very strong commitment to cooperation for sta- stability and peace in the region </READING ALOUD> . thank you </S6>
