DEVELOPING MULTILATERALISM: THE UNITED STATES AND REGIONAL COOPERATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, 1945-67

Abstract

By 1967, a trinity of major regional institutions could be found in Southeast Asia¿the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). SEATO was a military organization founded by the US and interested allies, ASEAN a purely Southeast Asian initiative and the ADB was somewhere in between, being a US-supported institution but run by Asians. Because of the scale of US developmental assistance to Southeast Asia and diplomatic energy in inducing regionalism, no study of American and Southeast Asian international relations is satisfactory without due consideration of the regional institutions spearheaded by both sides. As much as the US- and Southeast Asia-initiated regional bodies occurred quite separately from each other, bilateral ties influenced the process. Therefore, bilateralism and multilateralism were closely interrelated and could help or hinder each other.