ABSTRACT
Slowly but steadily, a new international institution is emerging in East Asia: the ASEAN + 3 forum, comprising the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, Japan and South Korea. ASEAN + 3 is an interesting case of institution-building in that it is constructed around the core of an already existing institution, ASEAN, which was founded in 1967. The following analysis of this multilateral forum seeks to answer two theoretical questions: (i) Why do states cooperate? (ii) What happens to their interests and identities once they communicate with each other? In view of this task, I will offer a social constructivist variant of international relations theory to explain the instigation of the process on the one hand and the processual construction of the institution on the other. The underlying belief is that not only do states influence the development of international institutions, but that institutions can also exert influence on foreign policy behaviour.
