ASEAN and APEC: Do concentric circles work?

Abstract

Abstract This essay argues that cooperation in a sub‐regional setting such as ASEAN, involving six countries in Southeast Asia, can strengthen cooperation in the wider region, such as APEC. This argument lends support to ASEAN's strategy of concentric circles of cooperation in which cooperation within the smaller grouping strengthens the group's participation within a larger grouping. The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), for example, is seen as providing a training ground for the ASEAN countries in their multilateral trade liberalization. However, APEC trade liberalization appears to be moving faster and will be broader in its coverage than AFTA. Nonetheless, it is possible that cooperation in the wider regional setting, such as APEC, could stimulate and strengthen ASEAN cooperation. This mutuality of influences between the smaller and the larger groupings creates the dynamics of the strategy of concentric circles of cooperation.