This weekend I spoke on the
ASEAN Economic Community at the University of Michigan Pan-Asia
Alumni Reunion. I graduated from the
university’s law school in 1991 and much of how I teach my AEC courses is based
on how I learned EU law and policy from Eric Stein and Joseph Weiler at
Michigan Law.
What is not widely known is
the linkage between Michigan and the formation of ASEAN. University Professor Russell Fifield, in
1963, proposed the formation of an “Association of Southeast Asian Nations,” or
“ASEAN” in his book Southeast Asia in United States Policy (Council on
Foreign Relations), as part of a collective security pact for the region:
To implement the treaty a Southeast Asian Council,
consisting of all the participants, should be established, meeting periodically
but being organized in such a manner that it could convene at short notice.
Further organizational steps could be taken as the needs develop. The treaty
should be indefinite in duration although any signatory could cease to be a
party upon a year's notice. In view of national sensitivities, the alliance might be termed an Association
of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
See page 426. This is believed to be the first time the
term “ASEAN” was posited in print. Professor
Fifield goes on to suggest that India and Japan could be associated with the
new regional bloc. However, the United
States should not be a formal part of ASEAN, so that the organization’s
independence would not be undermined (as
happened with the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization, or SEATO).
Those present at the
creation of the Bangkok Declaration claim not to have read Professor Fifield’s
book, according to Dewi Fortuna Anwar in her book, Indonesia in ASEAN:
Foreign Policy and Regionalism (ISEAS, 1994), at page 55. That would be consistent with the idea that
ASEAN was created by Southeast Asians on their own.
On the other hand, the
influence of the United States among the five original ASEAN signatories was
very strong. Indeed, the major factor in
the creation of ASEAN was the rise of Suharto in Indonesia, who replaced the
less pro-Western Sukarno (who in another link with Michigan, actually received
an honorary degree in 1956 from the University). Hence the U.S. influence on ASEAN’s formation
(and Professor Fifield’s influence), even if perhaps indirect, cannot be
denied.
In any event, ASEAN has
progressed far beyond what Professor Fifield suggested in 1963 and what was
actually established in the 1967 Bangkok Declaration. What is more important are the continuing
links between ASEAN and its peoples with institutions like the University of
Michigan. These living connections will help the AEC grow and thrive.
Go Blue!
