ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the proposition of declining national sovereignty and examines the status of the nation state in Southeast Asia. It shows that a clear understanding of political processes needs to underpin claims about the advent of globalization. The chapter outlines definitions of national sovereignty, integration and interdependence. A variety of possible degrees of interdependence and integration between nation states at both sub-regional and regional levels of analysis need to be distinguished. In order to interpret the changes taking place to our economic and political landscapes it is necessary to be precise about the terminology used. In the early 1980s the region was in recession as a result of sharp falls in export prices for crude oil and primary commodities, which accounted for a large share of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) exports. A number of broad-based changes are apparently tending towards greater economic co-operation within ASEAN, including between longstanding and new member states in the late 1990s.
