Asian Waters: The Struggle Over the South China Sea and the Strategy of Chinese Expansion

by Humphrey Hawksley

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) came about in 1955, but the region was too diverse, the governments too new, weak, and corrupt to hold it together. In 1977 SEATO was officially dissolved, and further attempts to revive the idea of a regional defense alliance in Asia have failed to get off the ground. Instead, there is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which was created in 1961 and carries an ambitious slogan, “One Vision, One Identity, One Community.” This grouping has worked better, partly because it has a policy of not interfering in the running of each country. It has worked toward setting up a free trade area, declaring the region a nuclear-weapons-free zone, and has an emphasis on quiet, nonargumentative diplomacy and consensual decision making.