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A.
Introduction
For 40 years the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN), an intergovernmental organization of 10 Member States, has had a sort of double life in the international system: both with the appearance of being an international organization and the reality of not acting like an international organization. It continues to suffer from a fundamental problem of perception.1 However, it has now tried to bring appearance and reality closer together with the adoption in treaty form of the ASEAN Charter in 2007, an important document that seeks to establish a legal and institutional framework for the Association2 This note surveys the Charter's key provisions and offers some remarks about its broader strategic imperatives.
B.
Asean As Intergovernmental Organization
1.
Membership
ASEAN was founded on 8 August 1967.3 The founding Member States included Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. The Association was first enlarged after Brunei was admitted on 7 January 1984, after attaining independence from the United Kingdom.4 That there are no permanent friends or foes in international relations was reaffirmed when Vietnam became an ASEAN member on 28 July 1995, despite a decade of antagonisms.5 Laos and Myanmar became Member States on 23 July 1997. Cambodia was the last to join on 30 April 1999.6
2.
Stabilising Southeast Asia, facilitating regional stability
ASEAN's purpose fundamentally lies in its ability to reduce intra-mural conflict within Southeast Asian States and also in its strategic role as a facilitator of regional stability within East Asia. The former was and is the Association's primary accomplishment. One should recall the strident claims on Northern Borneo (Sabah) made by the Philippines against newly independent Malaysia in 1962.7 Noteworthy, too, are the ten-sions generated by confrontation between Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as the fear of tiny Singapore in that climate.8 Moreover, as late as November 1977, Malaysia had challenged Brunei's international status with belligerence before the Fourth Committee at the UN General Assembly.9
Major powers are also jockeying for influence in Southeast Asia. This region bestrides the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean, where major powers such as India, China, Japan and the United States (US) will assert their commercial and military interests. ASEAN...