ABSTRACT
East Asia (EA) as conventionally defined is made up of two regions: Northeast Asia and Southeast Asia. Most of these EA economies, especially Japan, China, and the Newly Industrialized Economies (NIE), were high-performance economies, having attained high growth at near-double digit rates for a sustained period. Historically, all established hegemonic powers strive to prevent the rise of another new power. Great Britain at one time attempted to prevent the rise of Germany, but it did not make an effort to prevent the rise of the USA, largely because of the countries political and social similarities, which in turn gave rise to mutual trust. Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) came into being in 1967 when the Foreign Ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand signed the Bangkok Declaration expressing their desire for a good-neighborly style of cooperation. ASEAN's first move toward concrete regional cooperation was the conclusion of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) in 1976.
