Have Asians become more competent than Europeans in the geopolitical arena?
Just compare the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) with the European Union (EU). EU is an economic superpower (with a combined gross domestic product, or GDP, of $13.5 trillion), while Asean is an economic mini-power (with a combined GDP of $883 billion). But, in diplomacy, Asean is becoming a superpower, while EU is becoming a mini-power.
There are two Balkanized regions in the world: the Balkans of Europe and South-East Asia. Indeed, in terms of diversity in religion, race, language, culture, history, and so forth, South-East Asia is far more Balkanized. Yet, EU has failed to improve its geostrategic environment, failing in North Africa and West Asia, failing in the Caucasus and the Balkans. By contrast, Asean has helped to keep both South-East Asia and East Asia in peace.
For much of the Cold War, South-East Asia was divided between the non-Communist Asean and Communist Indo-China, dominated by the pro-Soviet Vietnam from 1979 to 1989. Vietnam could have remained a destabilizing force like North Korea. Instead, Vietnam joined Asean in July 1995 and has since then fully invested in Asean’s vision of peace and prosperity in the region. By contrast EU has still not resolved the problem of Kosovo.
Asean has also made major contributions towards enabling the peaceful emergence of new Asian powers. The simultaneous emergence of China and India (together with the continued strength of Japan) could have led to tension and conflicts in Asia. Instead, new patterns of cooperation are emerging. Asean has played a key role, being single-handedly responsible for spawning a new alphabet soup of cooperation ventures: ARF (Asean Regional Forum), Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation), Asean +3, Asem (Asia Europe Meeting) and the EAS (East Asia Summit). The three economic giants—Japan, South Korea and China—have failed to create a comparable Association of North-East Asian Nations. As a consequence, the only fora where the three North-East Asian leaders can meet comfortably and discuss common challenges have been the meetings convened by Asean, especially Asean +3 (China, Japan and South Korea). Thus, Asean has become the region’s peacemaker. EU should be taking lessons from it on diplomacy, not vice versa.