A WORLD OF REGIONS

Global Divides: The North and the South, First and Third Worlds

 The North-South Divide is a socio-economic and political categorization of countries. The Cold-War-
era generalization places countries in two distinct groups; The North and the South.
1. The North is comprised of all First World countries and most Second World countries.
 The North (First World Countries)
The North of the Divide is comprised of countries which have developed economies and
account for over 90% of all manufacturing industries in the world. Although these
countries account for only one-quarter of the total global population, they control 80% of
the total income earned around the world. All the members of the G8 come from the
North as well as four permanent members of the UN Security Council. About 95% of the
population in countries in The North have enough basic needs and have access to
functioning education systems.
 Countries comprising the North include The United States, Canada, all countries in
Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand as well as the developed countries in Asia such
as Japan and South Korea.
2. The South is comprised of Third World countries. This categorization ignores the geographic
position of countries with some countries in the southern hemisphere such as Australia and New
Zealand being labelled as part of the North.
 The South (Third World Countries)
The South is comprised of countries with developing economies which were initially
referred to as Third World countries during the Cold War. An important characteristic of
countries in the South is the relatively low GDP and the high population. The Third
World accounts for only a fifth of the globally earned income but accounts for over three-
quarters of the global population. Another common characteristic of the countries in the
South is the lack of basic amenities. As little as 5% of the population is able to access
basic needs such as food and shelter. The economies of most countries in the South rely
on imports from the North and have low technological penetration.
 The countries making up the South are mainly drawn from Africa, South America, and
Asia with all African and South American countries being from the South. The only
Asian countries not from the South are Japan and South Korea.

 The term "First World" refers to so called developed, capitalist, industrial countries,

roughly, a bloc of countries aligned with the United States after World War II, with more or
less common political and economic interests: North America, Western Europe, Japan and
Australia.
 "Second World" refers to the former communist-socialist, industrial states, (formerly the
Eastern bloc, the territory and sphere of influence of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic)
today: Russia, Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland) and some of the Turk States (e.g., Kazakhstan)
as well as China.
 "Third World" are all the other countries, today often used to roughly describe the
developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

History
The origin of dividing countries into the North-South Divide arose during the Cold War of the mid-20th
century. During this time, countries were primarily categorized according to their alignment between the
Russian East and the American West. Countries in the East like the Soviet Union and China which became
classified as Second World countries. In the west, the United States and its allies were labelled as First
World countries. This division left out many countries which were poorer than the First World and Second
World countries. The poor countries were eventually labelled as Third World countries. This categorization was
later abandoned after the Second World countries joined the First World countries. A new criterion was
established to categorize a country which was named the North-South Divide where First World countries were
known as the North while Third World countries comprised the South.

Criticism
The North-South Divide is criticized for being a way of segregating people along economic lines and is seen as
a factor of the widening gap between developed and developing economies. However, several measures have
been put in place to contract the North-South Divide including the lobbying for international free trade and
globalization. The United Nations has been in the forefront in diminishing the North-South Divide through
policies highlighted in its Millennium Development Goals.
World System Theory

World-systems theory is a macro-scale approach to analyzing the world history of the mankind and social
changes in different countries. The definition of the theory refers to the division of labor, be it inter-regionally
or transnationally. Currently, the theory divides the world into the core, semi-periphery and periphery countries.

Key Points
 Immanuel Wallerstein developed World Systems Theory and its three-level hierarchy: core, periphery,
and semi-periphery.
 Core countries are dominant capitalist countries that exploit peripheral countries for labor and raw
materials.
 Peripheral countries are dependent on core countries for capital and have underdeveloped industry.
 Semi-peripheral countries share characteristics of both core and peripheral countries.
Key Terms
 peripheral: Peripheral countries are dependent on core countries for capital and have underdeveloped
industry.
 core: Describes dominant capitalist countries which exploit the peripheral countries for labor and raw
materials.
 semi-peripheral: Countries that share characteristics of both core and periphery countries.

World Systems Theory, like dependency theory, suggests that wealthy countries benefit from other countries
and exploit those countries’ citizens. In contrast to dependency theory, however, this model recognizes the
minimal benefits that are enjoyed by low status countries in the world system. The theory originated with
sociologist Immanuel Wallerstein, who suggests that the way a country is integrated into the capitalist world
system determines how economic development takes place in that country.According to Wallerstein, the world
economic system is divided into a hierarchy of three types of countries: core, semiperipheral, and peripheral.
 Core countries (e.g., U.S., Japan, Germany) are dominant, capitalist countries characterized by high
levels of industrialization and urbanization. Core countries are capital intensive, have high wages and
high technology production patterns and lower amounts of labor exploitation and coercion.
 Peripheral countries (e.g., most African countries and low income countries in South America) are
dependent on core countries for capital and are less industrialized and urbanized. Peripheral countries
are usually agrarian, have low literacy rates and lack consistent Internet access.
 Semi-peripheral countries (e.g., South Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Brazil, India, Nigeria, South Africa) are
less developed than core nations but more developed than peripheral nations. They are the buffer
between core and peripheral countries.
 Core countries own most of the world’s capital and technology and have great control over world
trade and economic agreements. They are also the cultural centers which attract artists and
intellectuals. Peripheral countries generally provide labor and materials to core countries.
 Semi-peripheral countries exploit peripheral countries, just as core countries exploit both semiperipheral
and peripheral countries. Core countries extract raw materials with little cost. They can also set the
prices for the agricultural products that peripheral countries export regardless of market prices, forcing
small farmers to abandon their fields because they can’t afford to pay for labor and fertilizer. The
wealthy in peripheral countries benefit from the labor of poor workers and from their own economic
relations with core country capitalists.

Core nations
 Core nations appear to be powerful, wealthy and highly independent of outside control. They are
able to deal with bureaucracies effectively; they have powerful militaries and can boast with
strong economies. Due to resources that are available to them (mainly intellectual), they are able
to be at the forefront of technological progress and have a significant influence on less developed
non-core nations.
Semi-peripheral nations
 These regions have a less developed economy and are not dominant in the international trade. In
terms of their influence on the world economies, they end up midway between the core and
periphery countries. However, they strive to get into a dominant position of the core nation, and
it was proved historically that it is possible to gain major influence in the world and become a
core country.
Peripheral nations
 These are the nations that are the least economically developed. One of the main reasons for their
peripheral status is the high percentage of uneducated people who can mainly provide cheap
unskilled labor to the core nations. There is a very high level of social inequality, together with a
 relatively weak government which is unable to control country’s economic activity and the
extensive influence of the core nations.
Importance of studying world-systems theory
 The process of humankind evolvement is usually dynamic and due to many economic, political
and social factors, the dominance of the certain countries may shift rapidly over the time, which
in its turn, regularly changes the whole picture of the world economics. This gives a huge field
for studying and makes a world-systems theory interesting and useful for the effective
development of the economics, society and the world in general.
 Such subject as the world-systems theory is very vast and it might be difficult to grasp and cover
all important issues of it. If you don’t have enough experience in executing complex writing
assignments, the help of professional writers might be helpful. You will be able to know how to
do it properly and this will make your study time stress-free. You will get an invaluable insight
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achievements.

Latin America and the Philippines under Globalization

Introduction:
Partly because of their inability to catch up with the global North’s twin policies of innovation and
industrialization, the Philippines and most countries in Latin America and other regions formerly colonized by
western powers are still relatively poorer than the countries that colonized them. Hence these countries are still
labelled as third World nations.
Latin America describes as the region of Open veins
 Eduardo Galeano describes Latin America’s “Open veins” which the colonizers seemingly bled dry through
colonial plunder, replaced only with neo-colonial economic relations after the region’s independence from
western conquerors.
 Latin America is the region of open veins. Everything, from the discovery until our times, has always been
transmuted into European-or later United States-Capital, and as such has accumulated in distant center
powers.
“Our defeat was always implicit in the victory of others; our wealth has always generated our poverty by
nourishing the prosperity of others-the empires and their native overseers”.
 Renato Constantino and Letizia R. Constantino in their book “A Past Revisited” and the continuing Past
narrate the same story of colonial subjugation and neo-colonial subservience in culture, politics, and the
economy.

Philippines compared with Latin America

The Philippines is comparable with Latin America, for the latter is region that still works as a menial. It
continues to exist at the service of other’s needs, as a source and reserve of oil and iron, of copper and meat, of
fruit and coffee, the raw materials and foods destined for rich countries which profit more from consuming them
than Latin America does from producing them.

Dependency Theory
 The idea of Galeano and Constantino were part of Dependency Theory school of thought (Teoria
de la dependencia) which originated in Latin America, a continent where nationalist and left wing
leaders and revolutionaries-from Argentina’s Nestor and Christina Kirchner to Bolivia’s Evo
Morales, and Venenzuela’s Hugo Chavez to Cuba’ Fidel Castro-strived and still strived to steer
path away from western-oriented capitalism and toward varying levels of economic nationalism
and socialism, or a combination of both.
 The Soviet Union’s influence in Latin America was weak if not non-existent, partly because of its
geographical remoteness; hence its radicals were able to develop a distinct framework and mind
set stridently against the dominant American and European styles of capitalism, while at the same
time not fully subscribing soviet socialism.
 Theotonio Dos Santos, defines dependency as a “situation in which the economy of certain
countries is conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy to which the
former is subjected, categorized as colonial dependency or financial industrial dependency. He
notes that aside from influencing the international affairs of the subordinated country, dependency
also covers ‘their internal structures: the orientation of production, the forms of capital
accumulation, the reproduction of the economy, and simultaneously, their social and political
structure.
 Dependency Theory scholars assert that industrialized countries exploit poor countries through
economic and political neo-colonialism which perpetuate the latter’s pre-industrial or semi-
industrial status-majority of which are former colonies of developed countries.
  In a speech at a plenary session of UNCTAD, Ernesto “Che” Guevara summarized Dependency
Theory’s critique of th global status quo:
 The inflow of capital from the developed countries is the prerequisite for the
establishment of economic dependence. This inflow takes various forms:
 loans granted on onerous terms;
 investment that place a given country in the power of the investors;
 almost total technological subordination of the dependent country to the
developed country;
 control of a country’s foreign trade by the big international monopolies;
 And in extreme cases, the use of force as an economic weapon in support of the
other forms of exploitation. Samir Amin describes the world as an entity divided
into developed and countries whose disparity ‘has not become less pronounced. . .
. the gap between them continuous to grow larger and has brought about the first
crises of a capitalist system that had only just begun to be a world system.
 Amin also sheds light on the mechanisms of dependence that expose the process of
development and underdevelopment, through which “the underdeveloped economy is made
up of sectors, of firms that are juxtaposed and not highly integrated into entities the centers
of gravity which lie in the centers of the capitalist world.
 What we have here is not a nation, in the economic sense of the world, with an integrated internal
market. Depending on its geographical size and the variety of its exports, the underdeveloped
economy may appear as being made up of several atoms of this type. These “atoms” refer to
industries and businesses which prop-up the import-dependent, export-oriented economy of many
developing countries, designed to suit the needs of developed and capital-rich countries.
 Philippine situation: the economy is composed of atoms of industries of semi-manufactured good
and service-oriented businesses (malls, fast-food chains, call centers) that trap it into being one of
the world’s repositories of cheap labor, and subject it to other forms of exploitation.
 Factors that worsen developing countries’ dependency on the developed countries include:
1. Urban development. Together with inadequate increase in agricultural production of
foodstuffs, which make necessary increasing imports of basic food products (wheat, rice, etc.)
2. Increase in administrative expenditure, out of proportion with the possibilities of the local
economy;
3. Change in the structure of income distribution, with Europeanization of the way of life and
consumer habits of the privileged strata(demonstration effects); and
4. Inadequate industrial development and disequilibrium in the industrial structure (excessive
predominance of consumer-goods industries), which necessitate imports of production of
goods and intermediate goods.
 The combined working of these forces renders the underdeveloped countries dependent
on external aid, which tends to become permanent.
 Thus the Philippines remains poor or underdeveloped because its imports remain high
while the government fails to strengthen the domestic market through industrialization,
especially when remittances from citizens working overseas provide enough dollars to
keep the national economy afloat.
 In the Philippine economic setup, capital, debt, machinery/technology, and high-value products
from bulk of Philippine imports; while workers/professionals; raw materials, semi-
manufactured goods, and profits are among the Philippine exports.

Globalization and Regionalization in Asia

Despite the seemingly underdog situation of the Philippines under globalization, the country finds it difficult to
stray away from this development framework as it is part of Asia- a continent now as a forefront of
globalization and regionalization-due to several factors.
1. Asia is a home to China which in 2015 surpassed the US as the world’s biggest economy in terms of
GDP.
2. Southeast Asia is among the world’s most vibrant economic zones with much potential for further
growth because of its young and increasingly more educated workforce coupled with stable population
growth.
3. Asia is still rich in essential natural resources (from petroleum and minerals to food crops and
lumber).
 4. Some Asian countries such as Singapore, South Korea, China, and Japan are among the world leaders
in innovation, another dynamic driver of globalization.
 In addition to its sheer size, the Asia Pacific and South Asia has emerged over the past decade as
a new political force in the world.
 Much of this is driven by the robust economic growth in China and India and the strategic
implications this brings to regional and global players. Japan also remains a relevant if declining
force in region and the world, and other countries including then Koreas, Indonesia, Vietnam,
and Pakistan have economic and strategic relevance in today’s global system.
These very same factors- along with natural proximity which makes cooperation vital in any major economic
endeavour- endeavour- encourage countries in Asia to engage in greater integration.

Regionalization
Regionalization is the concentration of economic activities – trade in goods and services, movement of capital
and people – within a particular region or country. An indicator of this process is the increase in intra-regional
trade as a percentage of world trade and of the region’s own trade

ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS (ASEAN)

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional grouping that promotes economic,
political, and security cooperation among its ten members: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
 ASEAN countries have a total population of 650 million people  and a combined gross domestic
product (GDP) of $2.8 trillion. The group has played a central role in Asian economic integration,
signing six free-trade agreements with other regional economies and helping spearhead
negotiations for what could be the world’s largest free trade pact.
 Yet experts say ASEAN’s impact is limited by a lack of strategic vision, diverging priorities among
member states, and weak leadership. The bloc’s biggest challenge, they say, is developing a unified
approach to China, particularly in response to Beijing’s claims in the South China Sea, which
overlap with claims of several ASEAN members.  

The Bloc’s History

 Formed in 1967, ASEAN united Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand,
which sought to create a common front against the spread of communism and promote political,
economic, and social stability amid rising tensions in the Asia-Pacific. In 1976, the members
signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia , which emphasizes mutual respect
and noninterference in other countries’ affairs.
 Membership doubled by the end of the 1990s. The resolution of Cambodia’s civil war in 1991, the
end of the Cold War, and the normalization of relations between the United States and Vietnam in
1995 brought relative peace to mainland Southeast Asia, paving the way for more states to join
ASEAN. With the addition of Brunei (1984), Vietnam (1995), Laos and Myanmar (1997), and
Cambodia (1999), the group started to launch initiatives to boost regionalism. The members signed
a treaty in 1995, for example, to refrain from developing, acquiring, or possessing nuclear
weapons.
 Faced with the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which started in Thailand, ASEAN members pushed to
further integrate their economies. The Chiang Mai Initiative  [PDF], for instance, was a currency
swap arrangement first initiated in 2000 between ASEAN members, China, Japan, and South Korea
to provide financial support to one another and fight currency speculation.
 In 2007, the ten members adopted the ASEAN Charter  [PDF], a constitutional document that
provided the grouping with legal status and an institutional framework. The charter enshrines core
principles and delineates requirements for membership. (East Timor submitted an application for
membership in 2011 but not all members back its accession .) The charter laid out a blueprint for a
community made up of three branches: the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the ASEAN
Political-Security Community, and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community.

ASEAN MEMBERS

1. Banda Seri Begawan of Brunei Darussalam:

 Banda means town, originally was Bandar Brunei in Malay, while it also means port or harbor
or haven in Persian.
 Seri is from Sanskrit (Sri) means blessed one, while Seri Begawan could be said as blessed by
the god.
  Banda Seri Begawan means the harbor town blessed by the God.
 Brunei, officially the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace, is a sovereign state on the north
coast of Borneo in Southeast Asia. The country is surrounded by the state of
Sarawak, Malaysia and it is the only sovereign state on the island of Borneo. Brunei has an
estimated 2020 population of 437,479, making it the 175th most populous country in the world.

2. Phnom Penh of Cambodia

 Phnom is the name of Phnom Temple or Hill Temple.

 Penh is the name of a rich widow then who funded for building the temple on the top of the hill to settle
four of Buddha images.
 Phnom Penh is shorted form, means City of Four Faces.

3. Jakarta of Indonesia

 Jakarta derives from Jayakarta that is an old Javanese (eventually Sanskrit) means complete victory.

4. Manila of Philippines

 Manila or Maynila is from the word Nila, a kind of mangrove tree along the delta of the Pasig River of
Manila Bay.
 Nila as a Sanskrit word, means indigo tree.

5. Naypyitaw of Myanmar

 Naypyitaw or Naypyidaw is Burmese language, means residence of kings.

6. Hanoi of Vietnam

 Hanoi means river inside. The river is the Red River.

7. Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia

 Kuala means a junction of two rivers, Gombak River and Klang River.

 Lumpur means a muddy area.
 Kuala Lumpur, located at meeting of the rivers and with the sea as well.
 However, in Cantonese, Lam-pa refers flooded jungle areas.

8. Singapore of Singapore

 Singapore is from native Malay name, Singapura, Singha or Simha meaning Lion, Pura is city.
 However, the lion could be clarified that it’s not lion, but Malayan tiger, since lions should not be on this
island of Southeast Asia.

9. Vientiane of Laos

 Vientiane is eventually spelled by French

 Vien – Viang or Wiang meaning city.
 Tiane – Chandana that is sandalwood.
 Vientiane means the city of sandalwood.

10. Bangkok or Krung Thep of Thailand

 The city is now officially known in Thai by a shortened form of the full ceremonial name, Krung
Thep Maha Nakhon, which is colloquially further shortened to Krung Thep. Bangkok is the city's
official English name, as reflected in the name of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
 Thailand is a Southeast Asian country. It's known for tropical beaches, opulent royal palaces, ancient
ruins and ornate temples displaying figures of Buddha. In Bangkok, the capital, an ultramodern
cityscape rises next to quiet canalside communities and the iconic temples of Wat Arun, Wat Pho and
the Emerald Buddha Temple (Wat Phra Kaew). Nearby beach resorts include bustling Pattaya and
fashionable Hua Hin.
11. East Timor
 Timor-Leste, or East Timor, a Southeast Asian nation occupying half the island of Timor, is ringed by
coral reefs teeming with marine life. Landmarks in the capital, Dili, speak to the country's struggles for
independence from Portugal in 1975 and then Indonesia in 2002. The iconic 27m-tall Cristo Rei de Dili
statue sits on a hilltop high over the city, with sweeping views of the surrounding bay.
 Is East Timor member of ASEAN? Why?
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How ASEAN Works

 ASEAN is chaired by an annually rotating presidency assisted by a secretariat  based in Jakarta,
Indonesia. Important decisions are usually reached through consultation and consensus guided by
the principles of noninterference in internal affairs and peaceful resolution of conflicts. Some
experts see this approach to decision-making as a chief drawback for the organization. “These
norms of consensus and noninterference have increasingly become outdated, and they have
hindered ASEAN’s influence on issues ranging from dealing with China and crises in particular
ASEAN states,” says CFR’s Joshua Kurlantzick.
 Other experts say ASEAN has contributed to regional stability by developing much-needed norms
and fostering a neutral environment  to address shared challenges. “In Asia, talking and relationship
building is half the challenge to solving problems,” Murray Hiebert, a senior associate of the
Southeast Asia Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies
(CSIS), told CFR.

STRUCTURE OF ASEAN

I. ASEAN Charter-Based Bodies

The Charter sets out the mandate and function of the different ASEAN bodies.
1. The ASEAN Summit is the supreme policy-making body of ASEAN. It meets twice a year and is
comprised of the ASEAN Heads of State or Government.
2. The ASEAN Coordinating Council is the second highest body within ASEAN and is comprised
of the ASEAN Foreign Ministers. Like the Summit, the Coordinating Council meets twice yearly.
The Coordinating Council decides the criteria and rules for ASEAN engagement with external
entities, including civil society organizations.
3. The ASEAN Community Councils include the:
A. ASEAN Political-Security Community Council
 This Blueprint contains the majority of ASEAN’s policy commitments to human rights
and democracy and is the Blueprint under which the ASEAN Intergovernment
Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) sits. It aims to establish:
 A Rules-based Community of shared values and norms
 A Cohesive, Peaceful, Stable and Resilient Region with shared responsibility for
security
 A Dynamic and Outward-looking Region in an increasingly integrated and
interdependent world

B. ASEAN Economic Community Council

 The Economic Blueprint is by far the most developed of the three blueprints and contains
specific steps towards integrating the economies of the ASEAN Member States. The
Blueprint aims to establish:
 A Single Market and Production Base
 A Highly Competitive Economic Region
 A Region of Equitable Economic Development
 A Region Fully Integrated into the Global Economy

C. ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community Council

 This Blueprint seeks to create a more “People-Centered ASEAN.” The Blueprint’s goals
include improving the position of vulnerable social groups, including migrant workers,
 and reducing the development gap between ASEAN Member States. Specifically, the
Blueprint aims to promote:
 Human Development
 Social Welfare and Protection
 Social Justice and Rights
 Environmental Sustainability
 An ASEAN Identity
 Narrowing the Development Gap
 These councils comprise of one Ministerial representative per ASEAN Member State. Each
Council’s role is to coordinate the work of the different sectoral bodies within their respective
“community” in order to achieve the objectives of the ASEAN pillars. Each Community
Council meets twice annually. The Councils must implement ASEAN Summit decisions but
can also submit reports and recommendations to the Summit for consideration.
4. The ASEAN Sectoral Ministerial Bodies bring together the ministers of specific sectors (for
example, all of the labour ministers of all the member countries will make up one sectoral
ministerial body). They report to the Community Councils and are tasked with strengthening
cooperation within their sector and implementing decisions from the ASEAN Summit.
 Each ASEAN Sectoral Ministerial Body has relevant senior officials committees (known
as Senior Officials Meetings or SOM) and technical bodies to assist it in its work.
5. The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and the ASEAN
Foundation are also ASEAN Charter-based bodies. The Foundation was established in 1997 to
support social development programs aimed at reducing poverty and economic disparities within
ASEAN, and to facilitate greater interaction among the people of ASEAN.
 The Chairmanship of ASEAN rotates on a yearly basis between the different Member
States. The Chairmanship of most ASEAN bodies, including the ASEAN Inter-
governmental Commission on Human Rights, also follow this pattern. For a list of
ASEAN Chairmanships per year.

II. The ASEAN and National Secretariats.

The ASEAN Secretariat is located in Jakarta and supports the day-to-day workings of ASEAN.
Headed by the ASEAN Secretary-General, the Secretariat plays an important role in drawing up
plans of action in collaboration with ASEAN Senior Officials to implement decisions made at
ASEAN’s high level meetings.
 The Secretary General is appointed by the ASEAN Summit for a non-renewable term of
five years. He or she is supported by four Deputy Secretary Generals (DSGs) from four
different Member States. Two DSGs are nominated by Member States on a rotational
basis for a three year non-renewable term. The other two DSGs are openly recruited
based on merit for a renewable term of three years and are appointed by the ASEAN
Coordinating Council. There is a DSG responsible for implementing each of the ASEAN
Communities. The fourth DSG is responsible for Community and Corporate Affairs;
providing guidance on research, public affairs and outreach programmes for the ASEAN
Community.

 One important role of the Secretariat is to facilitate ASEAN cooperation with

external partners. The relevant Directorate for this is the Community Affairs
Development Directorate. Find more information on how non-government
organizations can engage with ASEAN.

II. ASEAN Diplomatic Representation.

The ASEAN Charter requires that each Member State will have a Permanent Representative to
ASEAN with the rank of Ambassador based in Jakarta. The Committee of Permanent
Representatives (CPR) is tasked with supporting the work of the ASEAN Community Councils and
ASEAN Sectoral Ministerial Bodies, and coordinating with the ASEAN National Secretariats and
the ASEAN Secretariat. The Permanent Representatives must also facilitate cooperation with
external partners.
III. ASEAN External Relations
Dialogue Partners
 ASEAN Dialogue Partners are States or inter-governmental organizations with which
ASEAN interacts on a formal basis. There are currently 10 dialogue partners: Australia,
Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia
and the United States of America. The United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
also has dialogue status and Pakistan is a sectoral dialogue partner. ASEAN has
 concluded free trade agreements with the majority of its dialogue partners, and holds
regular meetings with groupings within these 10 partners such as the “ASEAN +3”
annual meeting that involves ASEAN plus Japan, South Korea and China.
 ASEAN Regional Forum
 The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) is a forum through which ASEAN engages with
non-ASEAN states on political and security matters. It was formed in 1992 by way of the
Singapore Declaration at the ASEAN Summit. The ARF consists of the 10 ASEAN
Member States, the 12 ASEAN Dialogue Partners and one ASEAN Observer Country.
 The ARF countries interact on a formal basis (Track I) through annual meetings and on
an informal basis (Track II) through non-official seminars and workshops.
Economic Progress
 ASEAN has made notable progress toward economic integration and free trade in the region. In
1992, members created the ASEAN Free Trade Area  with the goals of creating a single market,
increasing intra-ASEAN trade and investments, and attracting foreign investment. Intra-ASEAN
trade as a share of the bloc’s overall trade grew from about 19 percent  [PDF] in 1993 to 23
percent  [PDF] in 2017. Across the grouping, more than 90 percent of goods are traded with no
tariffs. The bloc has prioritized eleven sectors for integration, including electronics, automotives,
rubber-based products, textiles and apparels, agro-based products, and tourism.
 Despite the progress, some of the region’s most important industries  are not covered by preferential
trade measures, and differences in income among members could make economic integration
challenging . Some experts see the AEC, through which ASEAN defines its trade goals, as a
potential catalyst for further economic integration.
 ASEAN is also party to six free trade agreements  with countries outside of the grouping. Since
2012, it has been negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) , a
proposed free trade agreement that would include all ASEAN members, Australia, China, India,
Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea. If approved, RCEP would become the world’s largest trade
bloc by population and GDP. However, negotiations have hit stumbling blocks, with India saying
in November 2019 that it will not join.
Regional Security Challenges
 Security challenges include maritime disputes, such as in the South China Sea, human trafficking,
narcotics trafficking, refugee flows, natural disasters, food insecurity, and terrorism and
insurgencies. While the vast majority of issues are dealt with outside of ASEAN, including
bilaterally or with outside moderation, there are several ASEAN-led forums through which regional
issues are discussed:
 ASEAN Regional Forum. Launched in 1993, the twenty-seven-member multilateral grouping was
developed to facilitate regional confidence-building and preventive diplomacy on political and
security issues. The forum represents a wide array of voices—including ASEAN, its  dialogue
partners , North Korea, and Pakistan, among others—yet it is often mired in geopolitical disputes
that limit its effectiveness.
 ASEAN Plus Three. The consultative group , which was initiated in 1997, brings together
ASEAN’s ten members, China, Japan, and South Korea.
 East Asia Summit. First held in 2005, the summit seeks to promote security and prosperity and is
often attended by the heads of state of ASEAN members, Australia, China, India, Japan, New
Zealand, Russia, South Korea, and the United States. “The summit remains the only opportunity for
the president of the United States to sit down and collectively engage  his Asia-Pacific counterparts
on the main political and security issues of the day,” wrote the U.S. Institute of Peace’s Vikram
Singh and the Brookings Institution’s Lindsey Ford. However, U.S. President Donald J. Trump has
never attended an East Asia Summit, sending relatively low-ranking officials  instead.
 Despite these diplomatic forums, disagreements over security issues continue to challenge
ASEAN’s unity. The group’s most glaring issue has been finding a joint response to the rise of
China. “China’s re-emergence as the major power in the East Asia region is not only likely to
transform Southeast Asia’s relations with China, but also perhaps the internal relations of ASEAN
itself,” wrote Mark Beeson, an Australian professor who specializes in the region, in 2016.
 Maritime disputes in the South China Sea have been the biggest irritant. Brunei, Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam claim features in waters contested with China. For those
countries, China’s moves to reclaim land and build artificial islands are seen as violations of their
national sovereignty. For other ASEAN members, tensions in the South China Sea are
geographically distant and not a priority. A few, such as Cambodia , even tend to support China’s
claims. In 2002, ASEAN and China signed the nonbinding Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the
South China Sea . Efforts to make it a legally binding code of conduct have regained momentum in
recent years, with Beijing voicing support  for reaching an agreement by 2022. At the same time, a
number of claimants have appealed for greater U.S. support. The United States has responded by
 continuing military cooperation with ASEAN members, including the Philippines and Vietnam, and
increasing its maritime presence to enforce freedom of navigation  in international waters. Southeast
Asian nations have also invested in modernizing their militaries .
 ASEAN members have been divided over their ties to China and to the United States. The region is
in need of investment, trade, and infrastructure development, and China has moved to fill these
needs. But ASEAN members are anxious about becoming economically dependent on China; in
turn, these nations “look to the United States to hedge,” says CSIS’s Hiebert.

U.S.-ASEAN Relations
 The United States is ASEAN’s fourth-largest trading partner in terms of goods, trailing China, the
European Union, and Japan. Merchandise trade between the two sides reached more than $271
billion  in 2018. The United States has launched subregional and bilateral initiatives to boost ties,
including the Lower Mekong Initiative , which aims to deepen cooperation between the United
States and ASEAN members Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam on issues related
to the environment, health, education, and infrastructure development. Four ASEAN members—
Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam—signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement
for Trans-Pacific Partnership, formerly known as the TPP , a free trade agreement that the United
States helped negotiate. However, Washington’s withdrawal from the TPP  shortly after Trump took
office in 2017 set back broader U.S. efforts to demonstrate commitment to the region’s growing
trade integration.
 The Barack Obama administration, as part of its so-called “pivot” or “rebalance” to Asia , increased
U.S. participation in activities with ASEAN. It sent senior officials, including President Obama, to
ASEAN summits, named the first resident ambassador to ASEAN, joined the Treaty of Amity and
Cooperation, and established an annual U.S.-ASEAN summit. The United States and ASEAN
elevated their relationship to a strategic partnership in November 2015, and the following year they
held the first U.S.-ASEAN leaders’ summit.
 The Trump administration has continued to send high-ranking officials on visits to Southeast Asia,
including the vice president and the secretaries of state and defense. In his first year in office,
Trump attended the bloc’s biannual summit, but he has not attended since.
A Path Forward
 ASEAN brings together varied economic, political, and social systems. Singapore boasts the
highest GDP per capita among the group’s members at nearly $65,000 based on 2018 World Bank
figures; Myanmar’s is the lowest at less than $1,400. The members’ political systems include
democracies, authoritarian states, and hybrids of both these categories. Demographics differ across
the region, too, with many religious and ethnic groups represented. ASEAN’s geography includes
archipelagos and continental land masses with low plains and mountainous terrain.
 Given such diversity among its members, the bloc remains divided over how to address many
issues, including China’s claims in the South China Sea, human rights abuses, including alleged
ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya minority in Myanmar , and political repression in member
states such as Cambodia.
 Some experts have suggested that ASEAN reimagine its framework and decision-making practices.
In 2012, CFR’s Kurlantzick recommended substantive changes  for the organization to lead
integration efforts in Asia, including strengthening its secretariat and empowering a high-profile
secretary-general to speak on its behalf, abandoning consensus decision-making, and demonstrating
that ASEAN can build its own free trade area. Others, such as CSIS’s Hiebert, see the organization
taking on a coalition-of-the-willing format, in which some of the group’s members could decide to
act on certain issues, such as joint maritime patrol initiatives , and others could join later.

Confronting the Challenge of Globalization

Asian countries confront various challenges of globalization in their own ways. Developing Asian countries
such as the Philippines strive to achieve sustainable macroeconomic development while lifting most of its
people from poverty.
 Statistics prove that economic growth has mostly benefited the tiny segments of the elite and middle
class.
 Thomas Piketty in his book discusses that income inequality and wealth gaps compose
the story of capitalist globalization around the world in this era.
Ex. Income shares of highest and lowest declines in selected Southeast Asian Countries by World
Bank
 There is a huge gap between the income share of the richest and poorest citizens in developing
countries.
 Bernie Sanders and UK labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn argue that income
inequalities can be addressed by tax increase for the richest individuals and
 corporations. Tax reform will increase the government’s financial power that it can use
fund social services such as education, health care, and housing. Providing such services
to the poor and middle class can drastically improve their lives and their capacity to
achieve higher levels of income.
 Duterte administration: Strives to legislate its own tax reform package that will reduce
income tax rates for most poor and middle-class citizens. Nevertheless, the said tax
reform package is also critized for imposing taxes on car purchases, fuel, sweets, rents,
and remittances while failing to increase corporate tax rates. The economic managers of
the current administration apparently intends to reduce, rather than hike, corporate tax
rates, purportedly to attract more investors to utilize their capital in building businesses in
the country.
 Another challenge that Third world countries face is Brain Drain brought up by labor export policy.
 The economic boom in a number of First world countries produce jobs that First World
citizens cannot or are willing to take; hence, the need to import workers from the Thirld
World countries. Brain drain reduces the capacity of Third world countries to make full
use of their human and natural resources for their own development.
 For example, it is ironic that a number of OFW destination such as the US and UK, have
more Filipino health care personnel than the Philippines. Both US and UK are top
destination of Filipino nurses.
 The vastness of the labor remittances flows are estimated to have exceeded $601
billion,. . . developing countries are estimated to receive about $ 441 billion, nearly three
times the amount of official development assistance. . . top recipient countries of
recorded remittances were India, China, Philippines, Mexico, and France. The reliance of
developing countries on remittances seemingly discourage government to strengthen
local employment as receiving remittances is easier than crafting an effective industrial
plan.
 In the Philippine case, the country’s balance of payments has been consistently negative
(more import than export) as its remittances from migrant workers soar. In other words,
“the most serious negative effect of labour export policies has been the neglect of
domestic production, and social development because of the easy availability of funds
from remittances. . . . for the government, the easy money from foreign remittances is a
major cause of its inability to pursue sound economic development programs.
 Massive environmental destruction in the name of the export-oriented extractive industries such as
mining is another problem that developing countries try to resolve under globalization.