After the Cold War ended, ASEAN expanded to include Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, as well as the tiny sultanate of Brunei, increasing the salience of Southeast Asia as a geopolitical entity. Yet despite ASEAN’s achievements in fostering cooperation between its members, a cohesive Southeast Asia remains more myth than reality.
torsdag 25. september 2025
The Two Southeast Asias : A Divide Is Growing Between the Region’s Continental and Maritime Countries
Policymakers and scholars in the West talk about Southeast Asia as a coherent region, but it has always been divided. The region’s 700 million people speak hundreds of languages and follow different religions, and its 11 countries vary in political system, size, geography, and level of economic development. Throughout the Cold War, Southeast Asia was divided between the five original founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that were aligned with the United States—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand—and the three countries of Indochina—Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam—that aligned with China or the Soviet Union.
After the Cold War ended, ASEAN expanded to include Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, as well as the tiny sultanate of Brunei, increasing the salience of Southeast Asia as a geopolitical entity. Yet despite ASEAN’s achievements in fostering cooperation between its members, a cohesive Southeast Asia remains more myth than reality.
After the Cold War ended, ASEAN expanded to include Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, as well as the tiny sultanate of Brunei, increasing the salience of Southeast Asia as a geopolitical entity. Yet despite ASEAN’s achievements in fostering cooperation between its members, a cohesive Southeast Asia remains more myth than reality.
