ABSTRACT
Introduction The study of international relations has increasingly sought to transcend the normative divide between the universalizing cultural pretentions of the West and the diversity of cultures outside it. At the same time, the difficulties that diverse societies have faced in building shared norms has hampered the ability of states to solve collective action problems, such as how best to protect human rights, safeguard the global environment, and combat international terrorism.1 A slow progress of policy coordination and implementation in multilateral institutions raises not only practical questions about the limit of institutions in delivering outcomes, but also normative questions about the relative importance of global norms and local cultural values. The Bangkok Declaration of 1993 pronounced a growing Asian resentment of Western-style political liberalism.2 Although this declaration asserts that the Western conceptualization of human rights should not be taken as inherently universal, critics could also claim that the discourse of Asian values is simply a tactic used by authoritarian regimes to divert criticism of their human rights record (Hurrell 1999).
