Dana R. Dillon
May 10, 2001
The Heritage Foundation
From security challenges posed by China to maritime piracy and international
trade, Southeast Asia plays an increasingly prominent role in U.S.
foreign policy decisionmaking. Today, after eight years of misplaced
Clinton Administration policy accompanied by a precipitous economic
decline in a number of Southeast Asian states, regional security is
threatened by the overall erosion of political stability and ongoing
maritime border disputes in the South China Sea. A new U.S. policy
toward
the region is needed. President Bush should craft a policy that focuses
on strengthening the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN),
protecting freedom of navigation, and fostering further economic development.
ASEAN's Role. During the Cold War, ASEAN had a pivotal role in protecting
this region--an important trade route--from confrontation between
the United States and the Soviet Union. Member states developed rapidly,
both economically and politically, and ASEAN became Asia's most important
regional organization and an asset to U.S. interests.
Since the end of the Cold War, however, ASEAN has drifted toward
impotence. Its rapid expansion from six market-oriented countries
to 10 members--including pariah socialist nations like Burma and Laos--diluted
internal cohesion, and the reluctance of the United States, Japan,
and the European Union to share a table with such regimes has weakened
ASEAN's utility as a multilateral forum. China, viewing a strong ASEAN
as an obstacle to its ambitions, works to dominate and neutralize
it, preferring bilateral negotiations in which it enjoys a clear advantage
because of its size and using meetings like the ASEAN Regional Forum
to veto issues it opposes. If America and China enter a period of
increased competition, the South China Sea could become a focus of
tension. A strong, independent, and prosperous ASEAN is therefore
important for U.S. national security interests.
Territorial Disputes. Beijing defines its maritime border to encompass
the entire South China Sea, extending hundreds of miles beyond its
internationally recognized sovereign territory and exclusive economic
zone (EEZ) to the coasts of the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and
Indonesia, and down Vietnam's eastern coast. This expansive interpretation
violates the letter and spirit of the 1982 U.N. Convention on the
Law of the Sea, of which China is a signatory. Moreover, China's penchant
for using unilateral force to resolve border disputes in its favor
has militarized the issue. Consequently, the ASEAN claimant countries
have garrisoned virtually every rock and reef in the South China Sea
against further Chinese encroachment.
The
Clinton Administration remained neutral toward China's territorial
transgressions in Southeast Asia, even failing to criticize China's
most aggressive actions. But such actions should not be ignored; they
are an explicit threat to freedom of navigation, corrosive to the
integrity of international law, and inimical to regional peace. Failure
to resolve Southeast Asia's maritime boundary disputes will hinder
the development of seabed resources, the regulation of fishing, and
the control of maritime piracy. Resolution of these disputes is in
America's best interests, but if China remains an obstacle, the United
States must make clear that it will strongly oppose any further unilateral
military moves.
Weak Economies. Southeast Asia has not yet fully recovered from the
1997 financial crisis. Indonesia, the largest ASEAN state, has done
little to reform its economy, and reform efforts in other Asian countries
have slowed. Because of this political turmoil and resistance to reform,
International Monetary Fund and World Bank prescriptions will have
limited impact. On the bright side, Singapore has initiated a new
round of free trade agreements with other countries around the world,
and its efforts should serve as a model for U.S.-backed efforts to
revitalize Southeast Asia. Though repeated demands for reform by international
financial institutions have had little effect on the politically beleaguered
Asian governments, the demonstrated successes of countries like Singapore,
which have willingly reduced their trade barriers, should forge a
trail for slower developing countries to follow.
U.S. Support. The United States can best enhance the role ASEAN plays
in the development and security of Southeast Asia by:
Actively supporting ASEAN's independent status. To balance the pressure
China exerts on the ASEAN states, the United States should participate
in all ASEAN-sponsored meetings on economic, political, and military
issues, including those attended by pariah states. U.S. attendance
at military seminars and functions at which Burmese or Indonesian
officers are present, far from representing any condoning of their
behavior, would demonstrate to America's friends and allies that Southeast
Asia is important to the United States.
Making it clear that attempting to settle maritime disputes by force
threatens regional stability. Even if the United States takes no position
on the merits of individual claims in the South China Sea, it should
make it clear that disputes should be settled peacefully and that
it will not tolerate any disruption of the freedom of navigation.
Washington should also support the building of military coalitions
within ASEAN to resist Chinese encroachment.
Reactivating a multilateral process to resolve maritime disputes.
In the past, Indonesia initiated a process to resolve maritime border
disputes that Washington all but ignored. The United States should
make it known that, with or without China's approval, it will support
a consensus ASEAN resolution to resolve maritime disputes. Until such
a proposal is ready, Washington should insist that the issue of South
China Sea border disputes be added to the agenda of the next ASEAN
Regional Forum meeting in July.
Expanding
regional trade. The United States is negotiating a free trade agreement
with Singapore that, along with its bilateral trade agreement with
Vietnam, will encourage regional economic liberalization. Washington
should expand the free trade umbrella in Southeast Asia to include
Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines, and other countries
willing to take concrete steps to eliminate trade restrictions.
A politically stable, territorially secure, and prosperous Southeast
Asia critical to U.S. interests in the Asia-Pacific region can best
be achieved through U.S. involvement in an effective ASEAN.
--Dana R. Dillon is a Policy Analyst on Southeast Asia in the Asian
Studies Center at The Heritage Foundation.
