Back
About RSIS
Introduction
Building the Foundations
Welcome Message
Board of Governors
Staff Profiles
Executive Deputy Chairman’s Office
Dean’s Office
Management
Distinguished Fellows
Faculty and Research
Associate Research Fellows, Senior Analysts and Research Analysts
Visiting Fellows
Adjunct Fellows
Administrative Staff
Honours and Awards for RSIS Staff and Students
RSIS Endowment Fund
Endowed Professorships
Career Opportunities
Getting to RSIS
Research
Research Centres
Centre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS)
Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre)
Centre of Excellence for National Security
Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS)
International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR)
Research Programmes
National Security Studies Programme (NSSP)
Social Cohesion Research Programme (SCRP)
Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) Programme
Other Research
Future Issues and Technology Cluster
Research@RSIS
Science and Technology Studies Programme (STSP) (2017-2020)
Graduate Education
Graduate Programmes Office
Exchange Partners and Programmes
How to Apply
Financial Assistance
Meet the Admissions Team: Information Sessions and other events
RSIS Alumni
Outreach
Global Networks
About Global Networks
RSIS Alumni
Executive Education
About Executive Education
SRP Executive Programme
Terrorism Analyst Training Course (TATC)
International Programmes
About International Programmes
Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior Military Officers (APPSMO)
Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior National Security Officers (APPSNO)
International Conference on Cohesive Societies (ICCS)
International Strategy Forum-Asia (ISF-Asia)
Publications
RSIS Publications
Annual Reviews
Books
Bulletins and Newsletters
RSIS Commentary Series
Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses
Commemorative / Event Reports
Future Issues
IDSS Papers
Interreligious Relations
Monographs
NTS Insight
Policy Reports
Working Papers
External Publications
Authored Books
Journal Articles
Edited Books
Chapters in Edited Books
Policy Reports
Working Papers
Op-Eds
Glossary of Abbreviations
Policy-relevant Articles Given RSIS Award
RSIS Publications for the Year
External Publications for the Year
Media
Cohesive Societies
Sustainable Security
Other Resource Pages
News Releases
Speeches
Video/Audio Channel
External Podcasts
Events
Contact Us
S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies Think Tank and Graduate School Ponder The Improbable Since 1966
Nanyang Technological University Nanyang Technological University
  • About RSIS
      IntroductionBuilding the FoundationsWelcome MessageBoard of GovernorsHonours and Awards for RSIS Staff and StudentsRSIS Endowment FundEndowed ProfessorshipsCareer OpportunitiesGetting to RSIS
      Staff ProfilesExecutive Deputy Chairman’s OfficeDean’s OfficeManagementDistinguished FellowsFaculty and ResearchAssociate Research Fellows, Senior Analysts and Research AnalystsVisiting FellowsAdjunct FellowsAdministrative Staff
  • Research
      Research CentresCentre for Multilateralism Studies (CMS)Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre)Centre of Excellence for National SecurityInstitute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS)International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR)
      Research ProgrammesNational Security Studies Programme (NSSP)Social Cohesion Research Programme (SCRP)Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies (SRP) Programme
      Other ResearchFuture Issues and Technology ClusterResearch@RSISScience and Technology Studies Programme (STSP) (2017-2020)
  • Graduate Education
      Graduate Programmes OfficeExchange Partners and ProgrammesHow to ApplyFinancial AssistanceMeet the Admissions Team: Information Sessions and other eventsRSIS Alumni
  • Outreach
      Global NetworksAbout Global NetworksRSIS Alumni
      Executive EducationAbout Executive EducationSRP Executive ProgrammeTerrorism Analyst Training Course (TATC)
      International ProgrammesAbout International ProgrammesAsia-Pacific Programme for Senior Military Officers (APPSMO)Asia-Pacific Programme for Senior National Security Officers (APPSNO)International Conference on Cohesive Societies (ICCS)International Strategy Forum-Asia (ISF-Asia)
  • Publications
      RSIS PublicationsAnnual ReviewsBooksBulletins and NewslettersRSIS Commentary SeriesCounter Terrorist Trends and AnalysesCommemorative / Event ReportsFuture IssuesIDSS PapersInterreligious RelationsMonographsNTS InsightPolicy ReportsWorking Papers
      External PublicationsAuthored BooksJournal ArticlesEdited BooksChapters in Edited BooksPolicy ReportsWorking PapersOp-Eds
      Glossary of AbbreviationsPolicy-relevant Articles Given RSIS AwardRSIS Publications for the YearExternal Publications for the Year
  • Media
      Cohesive SocietiesSustainable SecurityOther Resource PagesNews ReleasesSpeechesVideo/Audio ChannelExternal Podcasts
  • Events
  • Contact Us
    • Connect with Us

      rsis.ntu
      rsis_ntu
      rsisntu
      rsisvideocast
      school/rsis-ntu
      rsis.sg
      rsissg
      RSIS
      RSS
      Subscribe to RSIS Publications
      Subscribe to RSIS Events

      Getting to RSIS

      Nanyang Technological University
      Block S4, Level B3,
      50 Nanyang Avenue,
      Singapore 639798

      Click here for direction to RSIS

      Get in Touch

    Connect
    Search
    • RSIS
    • Publication
    • RSIS Publications
    • CO11164 | Visions at War?: EAS in the Regional Architecture Debate
    • Annual Reviews
    • Books
    • Bulletins and Newsletters
    • RSIS Commentary Series
    • Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses
    • Commemorative / Event Reports
    • Future Issues
    • IDSS Papers
    • Interreligious Relations
    • Monographs
    • NTS Insight
    • Policy Reports
    • Working Papers

    CO11164 | Visions at War?: EAS in the Regional Architecture Debate
    Tan See Seng

    10 November 2011

    download pdf

    Synopsis

    Three visions of regional architecture in East Asia – which can be referred to as the “Canberra”, “Washington” and “Singapore” schools – are in contention.  What are their implications for the newly enlarged East Asia Summit? 

    Commentary

    THE 6TH EAST Asia Summit (EAS) will convene on 19 November in the Indonesian island of Bali, with the United States and Russia as full members. However, doubts remain over the EAS’ prospects as a high-impact forum and its likely contributions to East Asia’s peace and prosperity.

    Indeed, the institutional architecture of East Asia has come under intense scrutiny in recent times. At issue are the architecture’s incoherence and its apparent inefficacy in response to an increasingly complex, uncertain and challenging regional environment. What is required, as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted in 2010, is an architecture that is relevant to East Asia’s “new landscape”.

    What will this new architecture look like, and under what conditions might it succeed in delivering the peace and prosperity dividends desired by its stakeholders? At least three visions or unofficial “schools” of thought are in contention  in the region.

    Three Visions of Regional Architecture

    The first of these is the so-called “Canberra School”. Related to former Australian leader Kevin Rudd’s Asia-Pacific Community initiative, it promotes a “command” or centralised brand of regionalism which argues the need in Asia for an overarching institution, fully empowered and equipped with a comprehensive agenda. Two Australian scholars have further prescribed that the architecture should be intelligently-designed and functionally-oriented. Regional architecture as such should be streamlined, its component institutions reformed and their roles and remits clarified, and underperforming institutions discarded. Asia “has too many organisations, yet they still cannot do all the things we require of them,” lamented Allan Gyngell, a leading Australian strategist.

    At a Sydney conference in 2009 to promote the Rudd initiative, participants proposed that the region be co-managed by a concert of powers comprising the Asia-Pacific’s G20 members (the United States,, Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia and South Korea), but with no visible role for ASEAN. Following cool reactions from China and the US and strong objections from some ASEAN countries – as well as a number of Australian intellectuals – the Rudd initiative was revised subsequently. ASEAN was included, while the newly enlarged EAS was presented as the logical expression of Rudd’s idea of an apex institution.

    The second model is the “Washington School”, which promotes a functional or results-based approach to regionalism. Its proponents appeal for effective and relevant regional institutions that could deliver the desired dividends. As Secretary Clinton recently noted: “It’s more important to have organisations that produce results, rather than simply producing new organisations.” Functionalists neither see the need for overarching institutions nor the need to discard inefficient institutions; the challenge is in ensuring they work. Nor do they reject an ad-hoc approach since they welcome functionally-oriented coalitions of likeminded countries that collaborate on specific interests (what economists call “variable geometry”).

    Crucially, functionalists acknowledge the need for a strong ASEAN as the core of a balanced and peaceful architecture. They seek to minimise the overlap of roles and responsibilities among component institutions, and, where possible, ensure a division of labour. In this regard, Washington’s prescription that the EAS focus on security concerns partly addresses disputes over whether the ASEAN+3 (ASEAN 10 plus China, Japan and Korea) or EAS is the more apposite vehicle for East Asian economic integration. But whether such functional distinctions can be successfully maintained remains to be seen.

    Finally, a third perspective is offered by the “Singapore School”, whose vision of architecture is relatively “laissez-faire” in orientation. It sees the existing architecture, despite its flaws, as fundamentally sound and still relevant to its stakeholders. Though its proponents accept that some reform is required, they do not see change, however, as urgent so long as regional structures and conventions do not constrain the pursuit of national interests. Nor are they averse to constructing more arrangements if needed.

    This was exemplified by Singapore’s proposal for an “ASEAN+8” forum in place of an enlarged EAS (out of concern that the US president may not commit to annual visits to East Asia). Ultimately, laissez-faire regionalists seek to preserve the default centrality of ASEAN in East Asian regionalism. In contrast to the Canberra School, they believe a concert of powers in Asia would be inimical to the interests of smaller Asian countries.

    Implications for EAS

    The three visions are primarily concerned with regional architecture broadly conceived. However, the East Asia Summit looms large against that policy debate, not least because Canberra School proponents see the expanded EAS as the overarching institution for which they have lobbied. But if privileging the EAS means sidelining other regional institutions, neither ASEAN nor countries that enjoy inordinate influence in the latter – China in ASEAN+3, for example – are likely to support such a move.

    Nor is it certain that the EAS’ more powerful members would commit to a concert arrangement, or that the Summit would survive should an exclusive concert emerge from within it. If anything, many East Asians enjoy the strategic flexibility afforded by the region’s variable geometry, which increases their policy options and reduces the likelihood for zero-sum outcomes.

    Nonetheless, the Washington School’s wish for a neat division of labour among the component institutions of regional architecture is unlikely to be fully realised since, with the exception of the EAS and the ADMM+8 defence ministerial, no two institutions in East Asia share the same membership. Hence, despite nominal differentiation by function, East Asian institutions are likely to include in their agendas concerns and issues beyond their respective institutional remits (as in the APEC trade forum’s interest in counterterrorism).

    Nor will the “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” outlook of the Singapore School be tenable in the long term. Even ASEAN understands its centrality in East Asian regionalism is no longer guaranteed, and it has embarked on a process of institutional reform in order to stay relevant.

    Important But Not Vital?

    The probable outcome for regional architecture in the foreseeable future will combine attributes promoted by the Washington and Singapore Schools. The EAS will likely become an integral piece of the region’s architecture, but not the region’s alpha institution. That being said, all three schools will no doubt see in the Summit something for which they could claim credit.

    About the Author

    Tan See Seng is Deputy Director and Head of Research at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.  He previously headed the RSIS Centre for Multilateralism Studies.

    Categories: RSIS Commentary Series / International Politics and Security / Regionalism and Multilateralism / East Asia and Asia Pacific

    Synopsis

    Three visions of regional architecture in East Asia – which can be referred to as the “Canberra”, “Washington” and “Singapore” schools – are in contention.  What are their implications for the newly enlarged East Asia Summit? 

    Commentary

    THE 6TH EAST Asia Summit (EAS) will convene on 19 November in the Indonesian island of Bali, with the United States and Russia as full members. However, doubts remain over the EAS’ prospects as a high-impact forum and its likely contributions to East Asia’s peace and prosperity.

    Indeed, the institutional architecture of East Asia has come under intense scrutiny in recent times. At issue are the architecture’s incoherence and its apparent inefficacy in response to an increasingly complex, uncertain and challenging regional environment. What is required, as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton noted in 2010, is an architecture that is relevant to East Asia’s “new landscape”.

    What will this new architecture look like, and under what conditions might it succeed in delivering the peace and prosperity dividends desired by its stakeholders? At least three visions or unofficial “schools” of thought are in contention  in the region.

    Three Visions of Regional Architecture

    The first of these is the so-called “Canberra School”. Related to former Australian leader Kevin Rudd’s Asia-Pacific Community initiative, it promotes a “command” or centralised brand of regionalism which argues the need in Asia for an overarching institution, fully empowered and equipped with a comprehensive agenda. Two Australian scholars have further prescribed that the architecture should be intelligently-designed and functionally-oriented. Regional architecture as such should be streamlined, its component institutions reformed and their roles and remits clarified, and underperforming institutions discarded. Asia “has too many organisations, yet they still cannot do all the things we require of them,” lamented Allan Gyngell, a leading Australian strategist.

    At a Sydney conference in 2009 to promote the Rudd initiative, participants proposed that the region be co-managed by a concert of powers comprising the Asia-Pacific’s G20 members (the United States,, Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia and South Korea), but with no visible role for ASEAN. Following cool reactions from China and the US and strong objections from some ASEAN countries – as well as a number of Australian intellectuals – the Rudd initiative was revised subsequently. ASEAN was included, while the newly enlarged EAS was presented as the logical expression of Rudd’s idea of an apex institution.

    The second model is the “Washington School”, which promotes a functional or results-based approach to regionalism. Its proponents appeal for effective and relevant regional institutions that could deliver the desired dividends. As Secretary Clinton recently noted: “It’s more important to have organisations that produce results, rather than simply producing new organisations.” Functionalists neither see the need for overarching institutions nor the need to discard inefficient institutions; the challenge is in ensuring they work. Nor do they reject an ad-hoc approach since they welcome functionally-oriented coalitions of likeminded countries that collaborate on specific interests (what economists call “variable geometry”).

    Crucially, functionalists acknowledge the need for a strong ASEAN as the core of a balanced and peaceful architecture. They seek to minimise the overlap of roles and responsibilities among component institutions, and, where possible, ensure a division of labour. In this regard, Washington’s prescription that the EAS focus on security concerns partly addresses disputes over whether the ASEAN+3 (ASEAN 10 plus China, Japan and Korea) or EAS is the more apposite vehicle for East Asian economic integration. But whether such functional distinctions can be successfully maintained remains to be seen.

    Finally, a third perspective is offered by the “Singapore School”, whose vision of architecture is relatively “laissez-faire” in orientation. It sees the existing architecture, despite its flaws, as fundamentally sound and still relevant to its stakeholders. Though its proponents accept that some reform is required, they do not see change, however, as urgent so long as regional structures and conventions do not constrain the pursuit of national interests. Nor are they averse to constructing more arrangements if needed.

    This was exemplified by Singapore’s proposal for an “ASEAN+8” forum in place of an enlarged EAS (out of concern that the US president may not commit to annual visits to East Asia). Ultimately, laissez-faire regionalists seek to preserve the default centrality of ASEAN in East Asian regionalism. In contrast to the Canberra School, they believe a concert of powers in Asia would be inimical to the interests of smaller Asian countries.

    Implications for EAS

    The three visions are primarily concerned with regional architecture broadly conceived. However, the East Asia Summit looms large against that policy debate, not least because Canberra School proponents see the expanded EAS as the overarching institution for which they have lobbied. But if privileging the EAS means sidelining other regional institutions, neither ASEAN nor countries that enjoy inordinate influence in the latter – China in ASEAN+3, for example – are likely to support such a move.

    Nor is it certain that the EAS’ more powerful members would commit to a concert arrangement, or that the Summit would survive should an exclusive concert emerge from within it. If anything, many East Asians enjoy the strategic flexibility afforded by the region’s variable geometry, which increases their policy options and reduces the likelihood for zero-sum outcomes.

    Nonetheless, the Washington School’s wish for a neat division of labour among the component institutions of regional architecture is unlikely to be fully realised since, with the exception of the EAS and the ADMM+8 defence ministerial, no two institutions in East Asia share the same membership. Hence, despite nominal differentiation by function, East Asian institutions are likely to include in their agendas concerns and issues beyond their respective institutional remits (as in the APEC trade forum’s interest in counterterrorism).

    Nor will the “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?” outlook of the Singapore School be tenable in the long term. Even ASEAN understands its centrality in East Asian regionalism is no longer guaranteed, and it has embarked on a process of institutional reform in order to stay relevant.

    Important But Not Vital?

    The probable outcome for regional architecture in the foreseeable future will combine attributes promoted by the Washington and Singapore Schools. The EAS will likely become an integral piece of the region’s architecture, but not the region’s alpha institution. That being said, all three schools will no doubt see in the Summit something for which they could claim credit.

    About the Author

    Tan See Seng is Deputy Director and Head of Research at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.  He previously headed the RSIS Centre for Multilateralism Studies.

    Categories: RSIS Commentary Series / International Politics and Security / Regionalism and Multilateralism

    Popular Links

    About RSISResearch ProgrammesGraduate EducationPublicationsEventsAdmissionsCareersVideo/Audio ChannelRSIS Intranet

    Connect with Us

    rsis.ntu
    rsis_ntu
    rsisntu
    rsisvideocast
    school/rsis-ntu
    rsis.sg
    rsissg
    RSIS
    RSS
    Subscribe to RSIS Publications
    Subscribe to RSIS Events

    Getting to RSIS

    Nanyang Technological University
    Block S4, Level B3,
    50 Nanyang Avenue,
    Singapore 639798

    Click here for direction to RSIS

    Get in Touch

      Copyright © S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. All rights reserved.
      Privacy Statement / Terms of Use
      Help us improve

        Rate your experience with this website
        123456
        Not satisfiedVery satisfied
        What did you like?
        0/255 characters
        What can be improved?
        0/255 characters
        Your email
        Please enter a valid email.
        Thank you for your feedback.
        This site uses cookies to offer you a better browsing experience. By continuing, you are agreeing to the use of cookies on your device as described in our privacy policy. Learn more
        OK
        Latest Book
        more info