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58. The ASEAN-ISIS and CSCAP Experience
- ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
- Chapter
- Additional Information
280 Carolina G. Hernandez By: ROS Size: 7.5" x 10.25" J/No: 03-14474 Fonts: New Baskerville 58. THE ASEAN-ISIS AND CSCAP EXPERIENCE CAROLINA G. HERNANDEZ Reprinted in abridged form from Carolina G. Hernandez, “Governments and NGOs in the Search for Peace: The ASEAN-ISIS and CSCAP Experience”, in Focus on the Global South website, (accessed on 23 April 2003), by permission of the author. THE ASEAN INSTITUTES FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES ASEAN-ISIS is the most important and visible peace and security-related track two mechanism in Southeast Asia.1 Initiated by the Indonesian Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), it was organized on 3–4 September 1984 in Bali, Indonesia. There were two Filipino specialists in the Bali meeting: Dr. Jesus Estanislao of the then Center for Research and Communications (CRC, now the University of Asia and the Pacific) and this author. Dr. Estanislao thought that this author should be involved in the effort as CRC was then focused on economic and business-oriented research. Thus, Philippine involvement in ASEAN-ISIS started with an individual with no research institution behind her. The original members of ASEAN-ISIS were CSIS Jakarta, ISIS Malaysia, Carolina G. Hernandez for the Philippines, the Institute of Security and International Studies (ISIS Thailand) based in Chulalongkorn University, and the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA). It was formally launched in June 1988 in Singapore at the Fourth ASEAN-ISIS Conference highlighted by the signing of its Charter. In 1991, the newly-organized Institute for Strategic and Development Studies, Inc. (ISDS) became the Philippine member of ASEAN-ISIS. In 1995, with the anticipated entry of Vietnam as a full member of ASEAN, the Hanoibased Institute for International Relations (IIR) became the sixth member of ASEANISIS . In April 1997, at an ASEAN-ISIS conference in Hanoi, the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP) will join as the group’s seventh member. ASEAN-ISIS is registered with the ASEAN Secretariat as an ASEAN non-governmental organization (NGO). Its Charter mandates that only research institutions based in ASEAN member countries may join. Although Brunei has no counterpart 058 AR Ch 58 22/9/03, 12:51 PM 280 The ASEAN-ISIS and CSCAP Experience 281 By: ROS Size: 7.5" x 10.25" J/No: 03-14474 Fonts: New Baskerville institution, it is involved in ASEAN-ISIS activities through its Foreign Ministry. ASEAN-ISIS also maintains an extensive network of institutional linkages with leading think tanks in many countries and territories in the Asia Pacific, including Australia, Cambodia, Canada, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States. It was a leading actor in the process that led to the establishment of the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) to provide track two activities for the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and is represented by CSIS Jakarta in the Council for Asia-Europe Cooperation (CAEC), a newly-established track two mechanism that seeks to provide policy inputs to the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). In the early years since its launching, ASEAN-ISIS worked individually through their respective governments, rather than collectively through the ASEAN machinery.2 Formal communications took the form of ASEAN-ISIS memoranda on various policy issues. These documents have been submitted to ASEAN governments as key issues emerged since 1991. But the formalization of the institutional relationship between ASEAN and ASEAN-ISIS started only in April 1993, where ASEANISIS was invited to meet ASEAN senior officials shortly before the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) in Singapore. ISDS Philippines was the ASEAN-ISIS Chairperson during this momentous occasion. Since then, ASEAN-ISIS has met with ASEAN-SOM in Pattaya, Bandar Seri Begawan, Yogyakarta, and Kota Kinabalu. The Pattaya meeting represents a critical turning point in the relationship of ASEANISIS to ASEAN.3 It was at this meeting where the ASEAN senior officials expressed their desire to meet with ASEAN-ISIS prior to their annual meeting which precedes the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM). They also expressed their appreciation to ASEANISIS for helping the association think about regional issues, a function the officials recognized as extremely important in addressing the political, security, and economic concerns affecting ASEAN and the larger Asia Pacific region. The meeting discussed the following substantive issues: (1) the future shape of the ARF; (2) the possible agenda of the First ARF Meeting in Bangkok in July 1994; and (3) the East Asian Economic Caucus (EAEC) within the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. Since...