When the leaders of five countries in Southeast Asia decided to come together and form the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) almost forty-three years ago, the Cold War was being fought and the military conflict in Vietnam was escalating beyond the country's borders. Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand perceived a common threat to their survival as non-communist sovereign states. Launching ASEAN was an instinctive response to immediate fears and passing problems generated by the convulsions of the war in Vietnam. Some saw ASEAN as no more than an anti-communist front. However, ASEAN was more than that and its subsequent development has transformed the grouping's apparent mission.

From Politics to Economics

In the Bangkok Declaration of 1967 that brought ASEAN into being, economic cooperation was held out as one of the organization's key objectives and specific actions were taken to move ASEAN towards this goal. Tariff reduction was regarded as the first step to increasing trade and strengthening economic ties, but negotiations were protracted. By 1977 ASEAN produced its first-ever preferential trading arrangements. Singapore's open economy was a pathfinder. Multinational companies and foreign direct investment (FDI) were warmly welcomed in Singapore. They led to a rapid expansion of the economy and helped Singapore to industrialize quickly. Gradually the other ASEAN countries were also attracted to such a policy. At the same time, the notion of developing a larger market beyond the national boundary through economic cooperation with neighbouring states was articulated as a way forward, not just for Singapore, but for the rest of ASEAN as well. Malaysia and Thailand were opened up and their economic development accelerated, with noticeable benefits for their business and people sectors.

In the 1970s and 1980s, external developments, particularly what was happening in China, Europe, Japan, and the United States, and the dramatic increase of oil prices, pushed the ASEAN countries to coalesce as a more substantive regional body. Brunei joined ASEAN in 1984, after its formal independence. In 1995, Vietnam was admitted into ASEAN.