Anthony L. Smith

ASEAN's Ninth Summit: Solidifying Regional Cohesion, Advancing External Linkages

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held its Ninth Summit in October 2003. The Summit, held in Bali, was notable for its announcement of an ASEAN Community, or Bali Concord II, which is to establish a security community, an economic community and a social community. These agreements are largely statements of intent, while the fleshing out of policy detail will have to occur at a later date. An Indonesian proposal to establish an ASEAN peacekeeping force, as part of the security community, has not been welcomed in all quarters. But despite the media coverage of ASEANs Bali Concord II, the Bali Summit was particularly notable for the external linkages that ASEAN further solidified. The leaders of China, India, Japan and South Korea were all in attendance, and China and India acceded to ASEANs Treaty of Amity and Cooperation during the Summit. Clearly all four Asian powers are increasingly vying for Southeast Asias attention.

The Politics of Negotiating the Terrorist Problem in Indonesia

Although Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) is a pan-Southeast Asia jihadi network, it has been able to headquarter itself in Indonesia, where it has also been able to find the lions share of its recruits. This article finds that there is little support for hardline Islamic political movements, or even violent jihadi groups, from the wider population. Yet at the same time the public is skeptical about the existence of an international terrorist problem. Not only is there general denial amongst the Indonesian population but Indonesias political leaders have had to tread carefully on the issue. Indonesia has had a degree of success in denting the JI network but confronting terrorism on the whole is fraught with political difficultiesnotably the impression that the war on terrorism might be a plot to weaken the Islamic world.