An assessment of the ASEAN as a (sub-) regional organization

Abstract

The period from World War II until the mid-seventies saw various attempts made to comprehend the process by which states join together. It appeared that the proliferation of regional organizations constituted the arrival of a significant new actor which would challenge the Realist state-centric view of International Relations. General theories of regional cooperation such as functionalism and neo-functionalism were produced, yet these did not prove to be adequate in their attempts to describe what was taking place. The new theories along with more traditional Realism were subjected to various refinements, which were developed chiefly to analyze the situation in Western Europe since World War II.