ASEAN centrality amidst economic integration in the Asia Pacific region

This paper uses network analysis to evaluate the extent to which the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is able to maintain its centrality in the context of the emerging economic integration in the Asia Pacific region. Employing methodology derived from network analysis, this paper maps Asia Pacific-related trade flows, and also determines the corresponding strength of these trade flows using appropriate centrality measures as defined and applied in network analysis. This paper finds that on average, ASEAN as a group is not upholding centrality within the Asia Pacific region, except when considering trade intensity, where ASEAN's average eigenvector centrality from 2007 to 2013 is higher than that of the network.