The+Association+of+Southeast+Asian+Nations

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=**History**=

The ASEAN was formed in August of 1967 in Bangkok, Thailand by Adam Malik, Narciso Ramos, Abdul Razak, Sinnathamby Rajaratnam, and Thanat Khoman. Each of these people were the foreign ministers of their country, which was respectively: Indonesia, the Phillipines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. It was formed becuase the countries of which it was made had a common fear of communism, desire to focus on building up their nations to greater power, and distrust of other powers in the world at the time the organization was formed. It then started to gradually grow in size, going from five nations to the modern number of ten nations. The ASEAN was built upon a prexisting alliance between the Phillipines, Thailand, and Malaysia.

=**Important Members**=

The member states of the ASEAN are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Phillipines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The most powerful of these states would be Indonesia, with it being both the largest and the most powerful, despite its less than stellar human rights record.

=**Goals**=

The main goal of the ASEAN is to promote cooperation and economic growth of the member countries, accelerate social progress and cultural development, and to encourage peace in the Southeast Asian nations.

=**Structure**=

The ASEAN is split into the Coordinating Council, which is made up of the foreign ministers; the Community Councils, which has control of the three lesser ASEAN Sectoral Ministerial Bodies--the Political-Security Community Council, the Economic Community Council, and the Socio-Cultural Community Council; The Sectoral Ministerial Bodies have control over senior officals and lower divisions of the ASEAN; The Committe of Permanent Representatives, which is made out of a representative elected from each member state who is given the rank of Ambassador and who ends up having to work out of Jakarta; and then there are the National Secretariats and other committees, which are the lowest ranking division. There is a summit between all the member countries that meets at least once every two years.

=**Advantages of Membership**=

The advantages of being a member of the ASEAN are that you will have trade partners and allies that you can trun to for help in nearly any tough situation. Another advantage would be sharing of ideas and advances throughout the member states.

=**Disadvantages of Membership**=

The main disadvantage of membership to the ASEAN is the way you all can be bound together as a group, and as a result the richer countries could end up as crutches supporting the poorer ones. Another problem is that if one country commits crimes against humanity or violates human rights, the organization as a whole could be held responsible. =**Effect on Local Diversity**=

The ASEAN challenges local diversity because of the encouragement of the member countries to trade with and help out each other. The act of trading things between countries that have different cultures, like most of Southeast Asia, spreads the other cultures and could potentiall replace the original culture. The ASEAN also hosts activities like sporting events, or writing awards, to further acculturare the region.

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