ASEAN Community: Unblocking the Roadblocks

This report, the first in the ASEAN Studies Center report series, begins with a brief account of the important points raised during the discussions made at a workshop organized by the ASEAN Studies Center and the Regional Economic Studies Program on 15 April 2008. The closed-door workshop gathered Southeast Asian experts on ASEAN for a brainstorming session on the nature of the ASEAN Community that the association aspires to be, segmented into its three pillars: ASEAN Economic Community, ASEAN Security Community, and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community. The session examined the benefits expected from regional community building for the people of Southeast Asia and the obstacles that lay on the way to its achievement. The workshop suggested certain measures for removing those obstacles. It then discussed the newly signed ASEAN Charter: the significance of its provisions, how it could help build the ASEAN Community, and how it might fall short of doing so.