Seeing ASEAN as a platform for spreading liberalism

초록

This paper challenges a mainstream view in ASEAN literature that ASEAN-level institutions constrain the spread of global liberal policies. It rather shows that ASEAN elites' collective diplomatic practices have facilitated the spread of these policies by making ASEAN a lively "transfer platform'' that external liberal countries can use to actively teach and study liberal policies and ideas. First, ASEAN's methods for engaging external partners have allowed the promoting countries to earn recognition as reliable and competent partners committed to ASEAN concerns by institutionalizing the organizational bases for sustainable interactions with ASEAN stakeholders. Second, elites' constant pledges of ambitious plans for regional integration have had positive effects in terms of lowering political costs of the promotion activities by the external partners because these activities were framed as responses to ASEAN's voluntary turn towards liberalism. Third, thanks to ASEAN's "let's gather and talk'' practices, the promoting countries can take advantage of ASEAN as a useful venue for expanding pan-ASEAN coalitions that can eventually become local allies supporting liberal reforms of their countries.

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