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Toward a ‘working peace system’ in Asia: organizational growth and state participation in Asian regionalism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

James N. Schubert
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Abstract

Over the period from 1950 to 1975, regional cooperation increased dramatically in Asia. Expansion in the scope and capabilities of regional organization proceeded through the establishment of 24 IGOs primarily concerned with technical and economic problems. With institutions characteristically specific in function and making decisions through consensus and intergovernmentalism, the structure and growth in Asian organization may be described from the theoretical perspective of classic international functionalism. The more politicized IGOs have not been successful and politicization has been most influential in retarding organizational growth. The rate of growth in Asian organization increased only as politicization from East-West, North-South, and developmental and power differences among participants was avoided by limiting participation to compatible nations. A rising rate of growth in Asian organization was correlated with an increasing concentration of cooperative activity among nations in Southeast Asia compatible in policies on East-West and North-South issues and similar in power and level of development.

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Articles
Information
International Organization , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , Spring 1978 , pp. 425 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1978

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References

1 An IGO is considered Asian or regional if (1) it is not part of the United Nations system, (2) its membership includes two or more Asian countries (Afghanistan is considered Asian, while Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, etc., are considered South Pacific rather than Asian countries), and (3) its primary focus is on Asian regional problems.

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17 Ibid. Haas identifies the following as macro-tasks: (1) official meetings, (2) plenary session actions, (3) research and development, (4) information dissemination, (5) technical assistance, (6) grants, (7) coordination with other IGOs. Associated micro-tasks include: (1) plenary bodies, expert working groups, executive committees, meetings of center directors, preparatory bodies, festivals, (2) approve budget, exchange views, policy harmonization, articulation toward the outside, (3) research, demonstration projects, exchange of experts, project identification, surveys, standardization, model proposals, (4) technical publications, audio-visual and teaching aids, seminars, activity reports, IGO publicity, (5) provision of training places, expert services, training, country planning, study tours, (6) research fellowships, training fellowships, supply equipment, funds to other bodies, loans, contract research, (7) observe meetings of other IGOs, consult with other IGOs, joint projects, receive financial support from another IGO, executing agent for other IGOs.

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21 ASPAC and ASEAN reflect different aspects of this approach. In ASPAC different member countries sponsor the ASPAC centers, while in ASEAN each member maintains a counterpart structure at the national level to administer ASEAN programs domestically. See Haas and Schubert.

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27 Exceptions are the FPDA and SEATO which have Western or Pacific members, and the ACU. In a three dimensional solution, not presented in this paper, the first two dimensions remain the same, but the third dimension separates these from the other IGOs and each other by pushing the military IGOs to the positive extreme and the ACU toward the negative extreme.

28 The South Asian group included India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka; the East Asian group included Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan; the Southeast Asian group included Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and South Vietnam; and the Indochina group included Burma, Laos, and the Khmer Republic.

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35 Singh, p. 125.

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37 The Macapagal Plan for a pan-Malay organization never went beyond the adoption of the Manila Declaration in August 1963. Maphilindo, created by that declaration, never became a functioning IGO.

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39 Singh, pp. 162–63.

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44 Three principal components were extracted with eigenvalues greater than 1.0 for varimax rotation. These three factors accounted for 88 percent of the total variance in dyadic shared memberships between 1952 and 1975. The results of a similar analysis are presented in Haas and Schubert's “Asian Regional Organizations.”

45 Wightman, David, Toward Economic Cooperation in Asia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1963)Google Scholar.

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47 Wightman, p. 262.

48 Singh, p. 75.

49 Singh, p. 154.

50 ECAFE's responsibility (now ESCAP's—the Economic and Social Council for Asia and the Pacific) is to the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

51 Singh, especially Chapter 4.

52 Singh, p. 60.

53 Wightman, p. 243.

54 Wightman, p. 251.

55 Singh, pp. 160–61.

56 As late as 1968, Japan was earmarking its Special Fund contributions through the ADB for agricultural and cottage industry development.

57 Wightman, p. 302.

58 Singh, p. 148.

59 Singh, p. 157.

60 Differences in level of development continue to plague ASEAN cooperation. A watered down proposal for trade liberalization emerged from the 1976 Bali Summit instead of the heralded commitment to a Free Trade Area by 1990 because of Indonesian fears of unequal benefits. Proposals for ASEAN industrial projects have been stalled by conflict over where the sites would be located. Far Eastern Economic Review, January 30, 1976, p. 47.

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63 Gordon, Toward Disengagement.

64 Etzioni, Amitai, Political Unification (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965), p. 31Google Scholar.

65 Both ASPAC and APU were organizations with fairly clear anti-Communist underpinnings. The semiautonomous functional centers of ASPAC are not so politicized, and may well continue to operate regardless of paralysis at the ministerial level.

66 Saniel, op. cit. For a recent discussion of Japan's role in regional politics, see Simon, Sheldon, “East Asia,” in World Politics: An Introduction, Rosenau, James N., ed. (New York: The Free Press, 1976)Google Scholar.

67 Saniel, p. 406.

68 Far Eastern Economic Review, June 10, 1975, p. 15.

69 Honolulu Star-Bulletin and Advertisor, April, 15, 1975. p. A–24, “United States Pullout Signals Power Shift.”

70 Far Eastern Economic Review, “Battle over ASEAN's Peace Zone,” September 3, 1976, p. 13.

71 Gordon, , Toward Disengagement, p. 97Google Scholar.

72 Ibid., pp. 111–12.

73 Gordon reports that even in Malaysia, the national ASA staff was not disbanded and planning for future joint ASA projects continued unabated through the period of conflict with the Philippines.

74 See footnote 60, above.

75 Gordon, Toward Disengagement.

76 Far Eastern Economic Review February 6, 1976.