Thirty years of ASEAN: Achievements and challenges

This article first takes stock of the experiences, successes and shortcomings of Southeast Asian regionalism. During its thirty years, ASEAN has demonstrated the capability to react to international developments and to handle interstate relations on a constructive and cooperative basis. It is perhaps the most valuable achievement of ASEAN that the Association taking advantage of its well‐established dialogue mechanisms has successfully managed to keep residual conflicts between the members (especially territorial dispute) from developing into full‐blown crises. The article then deals with the question to what degree past experiences, performances, patterns of organization and past interpretations of ASEAN's role in the international system should be maintained and where innovation is required. We argue that although ASEAN should not surrender its basic rules and norms, the Association requires re‐engineering in key sectors to meet the challenges of the new international order in the aftermath of the Cold War.