HIST 204 Dare to Dream: A History of ASEAN

Instructor: Vũ Minh Hoàng

Meetings: Tuesday & Thursdays 1:15-2:45PM, Classrooms 7 & 8

Office hours by appointment at hoang.vu@fulbright.edu.vn

As Europe is left reeling in the aftermath of Brexit and US President Donald Trump renegotiated
NAFTA after calling it “the worst trade deal ever made by any country”, it would seem as if over the last
few years, regionalism has been beating a hasty retreat around the world. Yet Southeast Asia has been
bucking this trend. Founded during the Cold War as a loose grouping of five anti-Communist Southeast
Asian states, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) turned 50 in 2017 with ten member
states, playing host to a range of regional security and economic fora that count all major global powers
among their participants, and embarking on fresh and ambitious attempts at further regional
integration. What accounts for ASEAN’s apparent success in the face of serious global challenges to
projects of regionalism? This course will explore the circumstances leading to the creation of ASEAN; its
early trials during the Second and Third Indochina Wars; its expansion after the end of the Cold War; its
response to “new” challenges including the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, the spread of Islamic
fundamentalism, and the rise of China; and its future prospects with the establishment of the ASEAN
Economic Community in 2015. Through this course, students will gain a broad appreciation of the
evolution of the political landscape and culture of Southeast Asia, and a new perspective on
contemporary projects of regionalism.

Learning outcomes:

 Students will walk away from the course with a solid grasp of how to ask interesting questions
based on the current literature, how to develop a clear argument that answers their question,
and how to substantiate their arguments with reliable sources.
 Students will learn to conduct research, write, and revise a college-level research paper.
 Students will be introduced to important authors, terminology, and ideas in International
Relations and Modern History.
 Students will be familiar with using Zotero for research and citation in the Chicago format.

Grades and policies:

 80% essays: 15% for the first, second, and third essays; and 35% for the final research paper.
 20% class attendance and participation

Required textbooks:

 SarDesai, D. R. Southeast Asia: Past and Present. 7th ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2013.
  Haacke, Jurgen. ASEAN’s Diplomatic and Security Culture: Origins, Development and Prospects.
Routledge, 2013.
 Ang, Cheng Guan. Southeast Asia’s Cold War: An Interpretive History. Honolulu: University of
Hawaiʻi Press, 2018.

Schedule: (Italics = Readings to be done before class; Bold = Due, hardcopy in class, softcopy by email)

Week Tuesday Thursday

Week 1, Jan Introduction – What is a region? Southeast Asia in the Age of Imperialism
12-14
Hurrell, “Explaining the resurgence of Haacke 16-31
regionalism in world politics”

Week 2, Jan WWII: Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity The first wave of decolonizations
19–21 Sphere vs. Southeast Asia Command
SarDesai 143-4; 152-4; 157-9; 163-4;
Caldwell, “Southeast Asia from 169-70
Depression to Re-occupation”
WWII Primary Sources
Week 3, Jan The Cold War comes to Southeast Asia Dien Bien Phu, the Geneva Conference,
26-28 and the formation of SEATO
Logevall, Embers of War, Chapter 9
Logevall, Embers of War, Chapters 21 &
23
Ang, 68-78

Paper 1: Primary source analysis (3 pgs)

Week 4, Feb The Bandung Conference and the birth Tet holidays!
2-4 of the Non-Aligned Movement

Acharya and Tan eds., “Bandung

Revisited: The Legacy of the 1955
Asian-African Conference for
International Order”, Chapters 1-2 (pgs
19-42)
Ang, Southeast Asia’s Cold War, 78-85
Week 5, Feb The Mekong Committee The Southeast Asian Games
23-25
Jacobs, “The Mekong River Creak, “Eternal friends and erstwhile
Commission: transboundary water enemies: The regional
resources planning and regional sporting community of the Southeast
security” Asian Games”
Giang, “New rule-based order needed
to save the Mekong”
Week 6, Mar The Association of Southeast Asia, The pivot (1): Indonesia ablaze
2-4 Maphilindo, and Konfrontasi

Haacke 32-51
Skim Ang 86-128
Week 7, Mar The pivot (2): Outbreak of the Second
9-11 Indochina War (Vietnam War)
Ang, 129-159
Paper 2: Argument mapping (2 pgs)
Week 8, Mar “Peace with honor”: American retreat,
16-18 Communist advance, and the Treaty of
Amity and Cooperation
Goscha, Vietnam: A New History, 331-9
SarDesai 324-330
The 1976 Treaty of Amity and
Cooperation
Week 9, Mar The Cambodian Genocide and the
23-25 missed chance for regional peace
Evans and Rowley, “Cambodia: The
Politics of Perfect Sovereignty”
Week 10, Apr A political settlement for Cambodia
6-8
Vu, “The Third Indochina War and the
Making of Present-Day Southeast
Asia”, Chapter V
Week 11, Apr Building a security community: The
13-15 ASEAN Regional Forum
Acharya, Constructing a Security
Community in Southeast Asia, 1-16,
192-231
Paper 3: An address to the UN (4 pgs)
Week 12, The Asian Financial Crisis and ASEAN+3
Skim Cribb, “Problems in the
Historiography of the Killings in
Indonesia”
Optional: Bevins, “What the United
States did in Indonesia”
Paper 2 Draft
The formation of ASEAN and the
ZOPFAN Declaration
Haacke, 52-64
The 1967 Bangkok Declaration
The 1971 ZOPFAN Declaration
Final decolonizations: East Timor and
Brunei
SarDesai 278-80, 310-15
Simpson, “Illegally and Beautifully”
The outbreak of the Third Indochina War
and ASEAN’s Faustian Pact
Haacke 81-111
Judge, “Victory on the battlefield;
isolation in Asia: Vietnam’s Cambodia
decade, 1979-1989”
Sihanouk, Playboy Interview
“From battlefield to market”: The ASEAN
Free Trade Area
Bowles and MacLean, “Understanding
Trade Bloc Formation: The Case of the
ASEAN Free Trade Area”
Paper 3 Draft
The expansion of ASEAN
Than & Gates eds., ASEAN Enlargement:
Impacts and Implications, 1-25
The ASEAN Charter
 April 20–22
Garg, Kim, & Swinnerton, “The Asian
Financial Crisis of 1997 and Its
Consequences”
Krapohl, “Financial crises as catalysts
for regional cooperation?”
Week 13, Apr Contemporary issues (1): Membership
27-29 East Timor from independence to
observer
Ortuoste, “Timor-Leste and ASEAN:
Shaping Region and State in Southeast
Asia”
Optional: Dupont, “ASEAN's response
to the East Timor crisis”
Berlie, East Timor's Independence,
Indonesia and ASEAN
Paper 4 proposal
Week 14, May Contemporary issues (3): Conflict
4-6 among members
The conflict over Preah Vihear
The 2010 Protocol to the ASEAN
Charter on the Dispute Settlement
Mechanisms
Phan, “Institutional Design and Its
Constraints: Explaining ASEAN's Role in
the Temple of Preah Vihear Dispute”
Optional: ICJ, Temple of Preah Vihear
(Cambodia v. Thailand)
Burgess, Temple in the Clouds: Faith
The 2007 ASEAN Charter
Jones & Smith, “Making Process, Not
Progress: ASEAN and the Evolving East
Asian Order”
Contemporary issues (2): The rise of
China
The South China Sea dispute
The 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of
Parties in the South China Sea
Thayer, “ASEAN-China Framework of a
Code of Conduct”
Storey, “Assessing the ASEAN-China
Framework for the Code of
Conduct for the South China Sea”
Ba, “Managing the South China Sea
Disputes: What can ASEAN Do?” (in
Hiebert, Nguyen, & Poling)
Baliga & Sokheng, “Cambodia again
blocks ASEAN statement on South China
Sea”
Optional: 1982 UN Convention on the
Law of the Sea
Hiebert, Nguyen, & Poling eds,
Perspectives on the South China Sea:
Diplomatic, legal, and security
dimensions of the dispute
Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative
Jayakumar, Koh, & Beckman eds, The
South China Sea disputes and law of the
sea
Contemporary issues (4): Sovereignty vs.
human rights
Myanmar’s long march to democracy
and Rohingya crisis
The 2014 ASEAN Human Rights
Declaration
Haacke, “ASEAN and Political Change in
Myanmar: Towards a Regional
Initiative?”
Hoang & Htut, “Rakhine Crisis
Challenges ASEAN's Non-Interference
Principle”
 and Conflict at Preah Vihear
Kasetsiri, Sothirak, &
Chachavalpongpun, Preah Vihear: A
guide to the Thai-Cambodian conflict
and its solutions
Week 15, May Contemporary issues (5): Transnational
11-13 crime
Piracy, trafficking, terrorism, and more!
Emmers, “ASEAN and the securitization
of transnational
crime in Southeast Asia”
Optional: ASEAN Documents on
Combating Transnational Crime and
Terrorism
Beckman, Roach, & Ashley, Piracy and
International Maritime Crimes in
ASEAN: Prospects for Cooperation
Kranrattanasuit, ASEAN and human
trafficking: Case studies of Cambodia,
Thailand and Vietnam
Week 16, May Contemporary issues (7): Public goods
18-20 Managing transnational pollution
The 2002 ASEAN Agreement on
Transboundary Pollution
Aggarwal & Chow, “The perils of
consensus: How ASEAN's metaregime
undermines economic and
environmental
cooperation”
Optional: Jayakumar, Koh, Beckman,
and Hao eds., Transboundary Pollution:
Evolving Issues of International Law
and Policy
Nguitragool, Environmental
cooperation in Southeast Asia: ASEAN's
regime for trans-boundary haze
pollution
Completion
Week, May
25-27
Optional: Ellis, “Singapore, A Friend
Indeed to Burma”
Hayward, “The Double-Edged Sword of
‘Buddhist Democracy’ in Myanmar”
Kipgen, Myanmar: A political history
Paper 4 literature review and outline
Contemporary issues (6):
“Care to share”
The 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and
Tsunami
The 2005 ASEAN Agreement on Disaster
Management and Emergency Response
Gentner, “ASEAN: Cooperative disaster
relief after the Tsunami”
Optional: Chong ed., International
Security in the Asia-Pacific:
Transcending ASEAN towards
Transitional Polycentrism
Borchers, “ASEAN's Environmental
Challenges and Non-Traditional Security
Cooperation: Towards a Regional
Peacekeeping Force?”
Epilogue: Regionalism in retreat?
The ASEAN Economic Community
Blueprint 2025
Jetin & Mikik eds., ASEAN Economic
Community: A Model for Asia-wide
Regional Integration?, 1-8
Paper 4 draft & workshop
Paper 4: Final research policy paper (8-
10 pgs)