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Mapping ASEAN: Achieving Peace, Prosperity, and Sustainability in Southeast Asia
For half a century, ten dynamic nations in Southeast Asia have been implementing a shared vision of economic growth, sustainable development, and cultural progress. Today, the economies of those nations are linked inextricably with the future of greater Asia as well as with the United States and the other Western countries. With authoritarianism and protectionism on the rise around the world and the catastrophic effects of global warming making action urgent, the nations that form the Association of Southeast Asia Nations are more relevant and under greater political and social stress than ever.
In these illuminating pages, David Carden, the first American resident ambassador to ASEAN, paints a vivid portrait of the regional and global cooperation required to meet today, and interconnected future. Carden takes us behind the scenes as the leaders of these ten nations work to prepare their countries and their region for the 21st century. Carden persuasively argues that the unfolding story of the ASEAN nations is a story for the entire worldthat we are all increasingly interdependent and confronted with the existential need to solve the same set of challenges.
In these illuminating pages, David Carden, the first American resident ambassador to ASEAN, paints a vivid portrait of the regional and global cooperation required to meet today, and interconnected future. Carden takes us behind the scenes as the leaders of these ten nations work to prepare their countries and their region for the 21st century. Carden persuasively argues that the unfolding story of the ASEAN nations is a story for the entire worldthat we are all increasingly interdependent and confronted with the existential need to solve the same set of challenges.
296 pages, Hardcover
Published September 10, 2019
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November 10, 2019
(Full disclosure- I worked with Ambassador Carden and the US-ASEAN mission on several projects, including one that is mentioned favorably in the book, and attended the book launch)
David Carden was nominated as the first resident U.S. Ambassador the Association of Southeast Asian Nations because of his relationship with, and support of, Barack Obama, not his knowledge of ASEAN, but he immediately set himself to the task of deeply immersing himself into the regions challenges and opportunities. Because of his outsider status and his broad range of interests he was able to develop a clear-eyed picture of the myriad challenges the region faces and to tirelessly advocate for potential solutions.
This book is an account of how he sees the region, and it's a deeply in-depth examination of ASEAN's many, many problems and challenges, and, if that sounds depressing, Carden never fails to provide comprehensive suggestions for how those problems can be approached.
The book is highly recommended to foreign policy professionals and government officials focused on the region- even if some of his proposals are difficult to imagine being executed, if even a quarter of what he lays out here was taken up the region would be immensely better for it. The ideas are worth grappling with.
David Carden was nominated as the first resident U.S. Ambassador the Association of Southeast Asian Nations because of his relationship with, and support of, Barack Obama, not his knowledge of ASEAN, but he immediately set himself to the task of deeply immersing himself into the regions challenges and opportunities. Because of his outsider status and his broad range of interests he was able to develop a clear-eyed picture of the myriad challenges the region faces and to tirelessly advocate for potential solutions.
This book is an account of how he sees the region, and it's a deeply in-depth examination of ASEAN's many, many problems and challenges, and, if that sounds depressing, Carden never fails to provide comprehensive suggestions for how those problems can be approached.
The book is highly recommended to foreign policy professionals and government officials focused on the region- even if some of his proposals are difficult to imagine being executed, if even a quarter of what he lays out here was taken up the region would be immensely better for it. The ideas are worth grappling with.
Displaying 1 of 1 review