Available Open Access under CC-BY-NC licence. Examining how the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) has responded to external threats over the past 50 years, this book provides a compelling account of regional state actions and foreign policy in the face of potential sovereignty violation. The author draws on a large amount of previously unanalysed material, including declassified government documents and WikiLeaks cables, to examine four key cases since 1975. Taking into account state interests and the role of external powers, the author develops the ‘vanguard state theory’ to explain ASEAN state responses to sovereignty violation, which, it is argued, has universal applicability and explanatory power.

Examining how the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) has responded to external threats over the past 50 years, this text provides a compelling account of regional state actions and foreign policy in the face of potential sovereignty violation. The author draws on a large amount of previously unanalysed material, including declassified government documents and WikiLeaks cables, to examine four key cases since 1975. Taking into account state interests and the role of external powers, the author develops the 'vanguard state theory' to explain ASEAN state responses to sovereignty violation, which, it is argued, has universal applicability and explanatory power.

However, this group has difficulty explaining ASEAN's record of success in resisting intervention by external powers. A third approach, focusing on critical theory, attempts to explain patterns of sovereignty and intervention. This theory's overwhelming focus on domestic factors ignores a variety of other critical factors that can more adequately explain state behaviour. By recognising the dual and important role of ASEAN and external powers, this dissertation makes a distinct contribution to the scholarship on the international relations of Asia. ASEAN is neither as central to Asia's international relations, nor as peripheral, as the current literature contends.

This volume brings together international experts to provide fresh perspectives on geopolitical concerns in the South China Sea. The book considers the interests and security strategies of each of the nations with a claim to ownership and jurisdiction in the Sea. Examining contexts including the region’s natural resources and China’s behaviour, the book also assesses the motivations and approaches of other states in Asia and further afield. This is an accessible, even-handed and comprehensive examination of current and future rivalries and challenges in one of the most strategically important and militarized maritime regions of the world.

This book adopts a sociolegal and interdisciplinary approach to examine how the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) has been understood within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Historically, the international community has struggled to effectively address humanitarian crises worldwide. The concept of the 'Responsibility to Protect' (R2P) has emerged over the past two decades as a principle that could guide states’ efforts to prevent and respond to humanitarian crises. However, R2P's interpretation varies across different regions, and it remains to be established whether it can successfully achieve its goals. This book adopts an interdisciplinary approach to analyse how R2P has been perceived and applied within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and China. In particular, it explores ASEAN’s, ASEAN member-states’ and China’s understanding and implementation of R2P, paying special attention to the 1999 East Timor crisis, the Rohingya crisis, and the West Papua conflict. The book assesses whether R2P has influenced the actions of ASEAN, its member states, and China. At a broader level, the book also explores regional approaches to international law, shedding light on Southeast Asian states’ perspectives on this aspect of global governance. This book will be of much interest to students of Responsibility to Protect, Asian politics, human rights, international law, and International Relations in general.

This major new study examines the nature of Chinese power and its impact on the international order. Drawing on an extensive range of Chinese-language debates and discussions, the book explains the roles of different actors and interests in Chinese international interactions, and how they influence the nature of Chinese strategies for global change. It also gives a unique perspective on how assessments of the consequences of China’s rise are formed, and how and why these understandings change. Providing an important challenge to scholars and policy makers who seek to engage with China, the book demonstrates just how far starting assumptions can influence the questions asked, evidence sought and conclusions reached.

Launched in 1991, the Asian Yearbook of International Law is a major internationally-refereed yearbook dedicated to international legal issues as seen primarily from an Asian perspective. It is published under the auspices of the Foundation for the Development of International Law in Asia (DILA) in collaboration with DILA-Korea, the Secretariat of DILA, in South Korea. When it was launched, the Yearbook was the first publication of its kind, edited by a team of leading international law scholars from across Asia. It provides a forum for the publication of articles in the field of international law and other Asian international legal topics. The objectives of the Yearbook are two-fold: First, to promote research, study and writing in the field of international law in Asia; and second, to provide an intellectual platform for the discussion and dissemination of Asian views and practices on contemporary international legal issues. Each volume of the Yearbook contains articles and shorter notes; a section on Asian state practice; an overview of the Asian states’ participation in multilateral treaties and succinct analysis of recent international legal developments in Asia; a bibliography that provides information on books, articles, notes, and other materials dealing with international law in Asia; as well as book reviews. This publication is important for anyone working on international law and in Asian studies. The 2019 edition is the Yearbook's 25th volume. To commemorate this achievement, this volume has two reflective articles: the first article presents the history of DILA and its flagship publication, this Yearbook; and the second article provides an overview of the Yearbook's State Practice section beginning with volume 1 to volume 24.

Derived from the renowned multi-volume International Encyclopaedia of Laws, this practical analysis of the structure, competence, and management of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) provides substantial and readily accessible information for lawyers, academics, and policymakers likely to have dealings with its activities and data. No other book gives such a clear, uncomplicated description of the organization’s role, its rules and how they are applied, its place in the framework of international law, or its relations with other organizations. The monograph proceeds logically from the organization’s genesis and historical development to the structure of its membership, its various organs and their mandates, its role in intergovernmental cooperation, and its interaction with decisions taken at the national level. Its competence, its financial management, and the nature and applicability of its data and publications are fully described. Systematic in presentation, this valuable time-saving resource offers the quickest, easiest way to acquire a sound understanding of the workings of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for all interested parties. Students and teachers of international law will find it especially valuable as an essential component of the rapidly growing and changing global legal milieu.

Asia is a crucial battleground for power and influence in the international system. It is also a theater of new experiments in regional cooperation that could redefine global order. Whose Ideas Matter? is the first book to explore the diffusion of ideas and norms in the international system from the perspective of local actors, with Asian regional institutions as its main focus. There's no Asian equivalent of the EU or of NATO. Why has Asia, and in particular Southeast Asia, avoided such multilateral institutions? Most accounts focus on U.S. interests and perceptions or intraregional rivalries to explain the design and effectiveness of regional institutions in Asia such as SEATO, ASEAN, and the ASEAN Regional Forum. Amitav Acharya instead foregrounds the ideas of Asian policymakers, including their response to the global norms of sovereignty and nonintervention. Asian regional institutions are shaped by contestations and compromises involving emerging global norms and the preexisting beliefs and practices of local actors. Acharya terms this perspective "constitutive localization" and argues that international politics is not all about Western ideas and norms forcing their way into non-Western societies while the latter remain passive recipients. Rather, ideas are conditioned and accepted by local agents who shape the diffusion of ideas and norms in the international system. Acharya sketches a normative trajectory of Asian regionalism that constitutes an important contribution to the global sovereignty regime and explains a remarkable continuity in the design and functions of Asian regional institutions.

This book contains the most comprehensive and critical account available of the evolution of The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) norms and the viability of the ASEAN way of conflict management.