Foreword

Summary

The ASEAN Studies Centre at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) has been casting an analytical eye on regional, intergovernmental associations elsewhere in the world. It has published a study on the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR) made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The North American Free Trade Agreement, as well as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, was a central focus of the ASEAN-Canada Forum that the Centre, with the support of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), organized at ISEAS in November 2008. A summary of the proceedings of the forum and the papers presented at it have been published in hard copy and posted online on www.iseas.edu.sg/aseanstudiescentre. The Centre has commissioned a study on the Gulf Cooperation Council, and intends to commission one on the European Union.

These studies have several purposes. One is to satisfy our and other's curiosity about what is going on in other regions by way of regional association and cooperation. What are they doing that ASEAN can, but does not? What is ASEAN doing that they can, but do not? What can ASEAN learn from them, if anything? What can they learn from ASEAN, if anything? What are they really all about? What is their nature? What are their stated ambitions and their real purposes? What are their achievements thus far? Their failures? What in their histories and the characters of their peoples explain these? What are the political and social impulses that account for their successes — and shortfalls?

There is a more immediate, more pragmatic purpose to these studies. It is to be of use, in terms of background knowledge, to viii Foreword policymakers and negotiators, should they wish to make use of them. In any case, the studies are made available to them, even sent to them.

In the case of this particular study, we at the Centre thought that the economic integration between Australia and New Zealand, the Closer Economic Relations (CER), was exceptionally worth a close examination by ASEAN and its members.