REGIONAL

POLITICAL
ORGANIZATION
 Meeting objectives

OAS ASEAN AU
ORGANIZATION OF THE ASSOCIATION OF AFRICAN UNION
AMERICAN STATES SOUTHEAST ASIAN
NATION
ORGANIZATION OF
AMERICAN STATES was
created on April 30, 1948,
and initially it included all of
the states in Central and Latin
America, as well as Cuba and
the US.
 The OAS has not been a notably
successful regional organization
largely because of profound
differences between the US and
other members. While the OAS is
devoted to multilateralism, the US
continues to favor a unilateral
approach to Latin America.
•The relationship between the US and Latin
American countries has grown more strained with
the rise to power of Hugo Chávez in Venezuela and
the movement to the left in other Latin American
regimes.

•Thishas also created strains among Latin American

countries between those that have moved left and
those that have not.
The ASSOCIATION OF
SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS was
founded in 1967, with Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore,
and Thailand as the original members.
It has now grown to ten members with
the addition of Brunei, Vietnam, Laos,
Myanmar, and Cambodia.
 ASEAN operates on the basis of the following principles which clearly
reflect its political character and its base in the nation states that compose
the organization:
(1) mutual respect for the
independence, sovereignty, (4) settlement of differences
equality, territorial integrity, or disputes by peaceful
and national identity of all manner;
nations;

(2) the right of every State

to lead its national existence
(5) renunciation of the threat
free from external
or use of force;
interference, subversion, or
coercion;

(3) non-interference in the (6) and

internal affairs of one effective cooperation among
another; member nations.
In addition, it takes as its other
goals the acceleration of economic
growth, social progress and cultural
development in the region.
ASEAN was founded as a largely political
organization, but it has come to be
dominated by economic issues. For one
thing, it sought to adapt to neoliberalism
by creating the ASEAN Free Trade Area
to reduce both tariff and non-tariff barriers
to free trade. This was both to prevent the
firms from coming to be controlled by
outsiders and to help them grow so that
they could compete with the MNCs.
However, in 2001 the focus shifted to
attracting foreign investment.
Finally, it responded to the 1997–1998 Asian
financial crisis by seeking to develop
regional financial systems that could help to
prevent future financial crises. The relatively
small size of their economies led ASEAN to
form ASEAN Plus Three and to include
three powerful Northeast Asian countries –
Japan, China, and South Korea. The actions
of ASEAN shows how a group of small
developing countries have pragmatically
employed regional cooperation to help them
mediate a range of pressures from
globalization.
 AFRICAN UNION (AU)
The Organization of African Unity (OAU) began in
1963, but it was succeeded by the African Union in
2002. The change represented a switch from a focus
mainly on pan-Africanism and collective self-
reliance to one on benefiting from globalization as
well as avoiding its adverse effects. Given the great
problems within Africa, it remains unclear how
successful the AU will be in either taking advantage
of globalization or avoiding being victimized by it.