ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)

Organization of 10 Southeast Asian nations designed to sustain regional stability and encourage economic cooperation among its members. In September 1963, Great Britain gave independence to its colonial territories in Southeast Asia. After the British withdrawal, these territories were incorporated as the new nation of Malaysia.

The presence of a new, large nation in the region destabilized the area and threatened the military dominance of Indonesia, the region's most powerful nation. In response, Indonesia's leader, Sukarno, launched a policy of regional disruption known as Konfrontasi. Under this policy, Indonesia supported rebel groups within Malaysia and tried to suffocate Malaysia's economy by blocking imports to that nation and forcefully persuading other Southeast Asian nations to refuse Malaysian exports.

Formation of ASEAN

The policy of Konfrontasi, however, severely disrupted Indonesia's economy and caused public unrest. In 1967, a military coup overthrew Sukarno, and General Suharto replaced him as Indonesia's leader. Suharto renounced Konfrontasi and advocated the creation of a regional organization to peacefully resolve the tensions among Southeast Asian nations. Consequently, on August 8, 1967, representatives of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines met in Bangkok and formed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The Bangkok Declaration that formed ASEAN expressed two goals for the organization: to ensure stability in the region and to foster economic cooperation among member nations. To increase their security, the ASEAN nations decided to advance a collective stand against communism. First, all the countries worked to improve employment and public services within their individual economies, thereby diminishing the major societal problems that turned impoverished, disgruntled citizens into communist insurgents. Second, the nations agreed to strengthen their diplomatic relations and to share military intelligence with one another to prevent the spread of communism. Finally, the ASEAN members attempted to isolate themselves from the external pressures of the Cold War.

This last resolution proved to be the most contentious. Indonesia wanted to eventually expel all foreign military powers from the ASEAN nations. However, Thailand and the Philippines were also members of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, and both nations housed large American military bases. Eventually, the ASEAN nations agreed to designate all foreign military bases as temporary. No time limit was specified in the Bangkok Declaration for the removal of these bases, and it was understood that Thailand and the Philippines could maintain the American bases as long as they desired.

Reasserting Close Ties

As the Vietnam War intensified and spilled into Laos and Cambodia, the ASEAN members found themselves increasingly drawn into the conflict. In November 1971, therefore, the foreign ministers from all ASEAN nations gathered in the Malaysian city of Kuala Lumpur and crafted the Declaration on a Zone of Peace, Freedom, and Neutrality (ZOPFAN). This [Page 47]declaration reasserted the close relationship among ASEAN members first described in the Bangkok Declaration and announced that the member nations would work to prevent the interference of any outside powers in their affairs.

Like the Bangkok Declaration, however, ZOPFAN offered only an ideal. Although it claimed that the ASEAN nations would cooperate to form a zone of peace, the declaration failed to specify how such a zone would be implemented. Once again, Thailand and the Philippines refused to expel the growing number of U.S. forces that were stationed in their nations because, realistically, these forces provided much more security for their host nations than any measures that ASEAN could enact.

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