The European Union, United States and ASEAN: Challenges and Prospects for Co-operative Engagement in the 21st Century (review)

Book Reviews The European Union, United States and ASEAN: Challenges and Prospectsfor Co-operative Engagementin the 21st Century. Edited by K.S. Nathan. London: ASEAN Academic Press, 2002. 398pp. The central focus of this book is the increasing significance of interregional relations, especially the relations that link the European Union, the United States, and ASEAN. With each of these three main regional groupings going through critical changes, and with analysts chronicling the growing tensions between the United States and the European Union, the chapters in the book provide an excellent foundation for gaining an understanding of the history of inter-regional relations and how relations among these key regions might develop. Importantly, of course, each of the regions discussed in the book has either recently expanded its boundaries or is in the process ofnegotiating the terms for doing so. In Asia, ASEAN, while maintaining its core identity, has promoted the "ASEAN Plus Three" (APT) framework in which it coordinates its activities on a number of fronts with China, Japan, and South Korea. In Europe, the Union is set to add ten new members, mostly from Eastern Europe, by 2004. The United States is also currently seeking to expand the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) with thirty-four members by 2005. At the same time, a number ofunilateral moves early in the George W. Bush Administration, most notably the denunciation of the Kyoto Accord and the decision to go ahead with the National Missile Defence system, as well as the debate over how to deal with Iraq and the Palestinian question, have been widely interpreted as indicating a growing division between Europe and the United States. Clearly, 154 Book Reviews155 then, regions, regionalization and inter-regional relations are preoccupying analysts and practitioners alike. The publication of this book is thus most welcome. The editor, K.S. Nathan, has brought together an impressive range of academics who are able to dissect the issues raised by inter-regional relations in a number of different ways. In his introduction to the volume, Nathan provides a central focus for the analyses which follow by exploring EU-U.S.-ASEAN linkages in terms of what he calls "cooperative engagement". This essentially liberal concept emphasizes the positive aspects of the relations among regions by concentrating on a co-operative security approach in terms of dealing with strategic threats and open regionalism in economic relations. Nathan suggests the need for "discussion, debate, dialogue and strategic compromise in areas of divergence" (p. 18) and a multilateral approach to the resolution of specific problems. This is a refreshing antidote to the current emphasis on the seemingly increasing tensions between the regions. The first set of chapters looks at security issues from the perspective of each of the regions which are central to the book. Trevor Taylor examines the relations among the three regions from the perspective of Europe, Sheldon Simon from the vantage point of the United States, and Chin Kin Wah from the point of view of the ASEAN members. For Taylor and Chin, clearly the United States is the dominant player and the relations between Europe and the United States, and between ASEAN and the United States are critical. Interestingly, however, the reader gets the distinct impression that there is still a good deal of uncertainty in U.S. policy. Taylor, for example, notes that "there is a new transatlantic 'burden sharing debate' waiting to happen" (p. 33), and Simon argues that important aspects of America's strategy towards East Asia are "incoherent" (p. 61). The second set of chapters by H. Ruediger Korff, Ryan Bishop, and Shamsul A.B. address the social, cultural, and psychological links that tie the regions together. In particular, Korffnotes the differences in the dominant political cultures of the three regions and the need to take these into account when looking at inter-regional relations, while Shamsul perceptively emphasizes the extent to which "colonial knowledge" underpins various aspects of the way people in each region view international and intercontinental relations. The third set of chapters, by Leszek Buszynski, Greg Felker, and Wilfido V. Villacorta, examine the Asian economic crisis of 1997-98 and...