ABSTRACT
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) pursued external economic support from wider regional states, securing a number of joint economic cooperation projects with Australia, and seeking similar cooperation with New Zealand and Canada. ASEAN member states had also created a framework on which to solve disputes: by leaving them at the door and outside the organisation. Indeed, ASEAN member states continued, during the decade after the association’s inauguration, to differ over whether ASEAN should pursue security objectives. There is no doubt regional cooperation could not have happened without the Southeast Asian countries taking the initiative to band together and form an association. While the United States looked for ways to encourage regional cooperation, Asian nations took the initiative. While the regional perspective and approach was not the entirety of United States policy towards Southeast Asia, major aspects of American aims for the region were based on a policy of encouraging regional cooperation.
