The EU-ASEAN relationship is one of the longest standing group-to- group dialogues in existence, linking the two most firmly established regional organizations — the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Indeed, the launching of the EC-ASEAN relationship, the genesis of which is to be found in the fourth ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (AMM) in 1971, is seen by many to be “the real date of birth of the group-to-group dialogue”. In 1972 the Special Co-ordinating Committee of ASEAN Nations (SCCAN) was set up in Brussels to focus on matters of trade between ASEAN and the EC, establishing the Community as the first dialogue partner of the Association. A relationship has thus existed between the European Community/Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for more than three decades. It has survived the ending of the Cold War, and has spanned the periods of “old” (agency as the causal factor) and “new” (systemic structure/change as the causal factor) inter-regionalism. Simply, it is the single best example available for empirical analysis of inter-regional relationships, and more specifically for exploration of the deduced functions of inter-regionalism.

In 1989 the world changed. The bipolar conflict of the Cold War era came to an end, and the international system underwent a series of profound transformations, including the relative diminution of the place of nation-states through the process of economic globalization and the increasing transnationalization of international politics. The practical effect has been that regional powers and organizations have proliferated as a means for states to gain greater weight in the international system, and indeed to avoid marginalization, and that in turn the proliferation and increasing importance of such regional arrangements has led to a corresponding growth of dialogues between regions.

The growth in inter-regional dialogue throughout the 1990s and the first years of the twenty-first century has been reflected in an increase in academic interest. In addition to explanatory work on the emergence and functioning of inter-regionalism, this has involved such questions as: what is the value of inter-regionalism in international relations?; and to what extent are inter-regional dialogues useful institutions serving to streamline global governance?