http://edition. cnn.com/2013/08/ 14/opinion/asean-dream-kha nna/?hpt=hp_mid Page 1 of 2 Aug 16, 2013 03:19:35AM MDT ASEAN is key to 'Asian century' By Parag Khanna, special for CNN August 15, 2013 -- Updated 1254 GMT (20 54 HKT) CNN.com is a Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation and Senior Editor's note: Parag Khanna Fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. His books include "The Second World," "How to Run the World," and "Hybrid Reality." (CNN) -- Over the past year I've revisited a host of Southeast Asian countries I first began traveling in more than a decade ago. The region's progress has been remarkable both in terms of overall economic growth and the promising opening of formerly isolated nations like Myanmar. With China's slowing growth and rising wages, investors and exporters are searching for new long-term opportunities and sites of production. The time of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has come. Last month in Laos, I met a Malay-Laotian couple with modest backgrounds who met while on fellowships in Japan. After their respective graduate degrees, they reunited in Vientiane where they advise government agencies, donors and NGOs. Their cross-border mobility is a symbol of an entire new generation of upwardly progressive Southeast Asians who view their success as intimately connected to the broader region rather than their smaller home nations alone. While much attention is paid to President Xi Jinping's articulation of a "China Dream," quietly an "ASEAN Dream" is also being born. Strategic location ASEAN countries have strategic geography o n their s ide as well. The region fo rms the cr ossroads of China and India, with deep infrastructural links re-emerging gradually through Myanmar. It is also the main conduit, via the Straits of Malacca, for most of the world's oil flows between the Near East and Far East. Now is the time for ASEAN to move from size to coherence. Over the past 50 years, Southeast Asia has experienced colonial liberation, the traumatic Vietnam War, internal rivalries between Indonesia and Malaysia, various forms of strongman rule, and diplomatic self-isolation through non-alignment. Today the region can be considered largely stable save for the simmering South China Sea dispute. This is ASEAN's chance to assert its collective voice, with American backing, vis-à-vis China and ensure that no single power dominates these crucial waters. The same applies to the issue of China's rampant upstream damming of the Mekong River, which threatens the stability of downstream flows on which ASEAN's heavily a gricultura l nations depend. Read more: ASEAN chief: South China risks becoming 'Asia's Palestine' Continued economic integration is also a strategic imperative. ASEAN is expected to launch an Economic Community (EAC) by 2015 that can either boost the region's growth potential or reveal deeper protectionist firewalls in both strong and weak economies. As much as Vietnam and Thailand stand to gain from even greater access to Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, a community worth its name needs a vision to help develop its poorest members. The top priority both to promote integration and assist weaker ASEAN nations must be infrastructure

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Page 1 of 2 Aug 16, 2013 03:19:35AM

ASEAN is key to 'Asian century'By Parag Khanna, special for CNN

August 15, 2013 -- Updated 1254 GMT (2054 HKT) CNN.co

is a Senior Research Fellow at the New America Foundation and Senior Editor's note: Parag Khanna

Fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. His books include "The Second World," "How to

Run the World," and "Hybrid Reality."

(CNN) -- Over the past year I've revisited a host of Southeast Asian countries I first began traveling in

more than a decade ago. The region's progress has been remarkable both in terms of overall economic

growth and the promising opening of formerly isolated nations like Myanmar. With China's slowing growt

and rising wages, investors and exporters are searching for new long-term opportunities and sites of

production. The time of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has come.

Last month in Laos, I met a Malay-Laotian couple with modest backgrounds who met while on fellowship

in Japan. After their respective graduate degrees, they reunited in Vientiane where they advise

government agencies, donors and NGOs. Their cross-border mobility is a symbol of an entire newgeneration of upwardly progressive Southeast Asians who view their success as intimately connected to

the broader region rather than their smaller home nations alone. While much attention is paid to Preside

Xi Jinping's articulation of a "China Dream," quietly an "ASEAN Dream" is also being born.

Strategic location

ASEAN countries have strategic geography on their side as well. The region forms the crossroads of

China and India, with deep infrastructural links re-emerging gradually through Myanmar. It is also the ma

conduit, via the Straits of Malacca, for most of the world's oil flows between the Near East and Far East.

Now is the time for ASEAN to move from size to coherence. Over the past 50 years, Southeast Asia has

experienced colonial liberation, the traumatic Vietnam War, internal rivalries between Indonesia and

Malaysia, various forms of strongman rule, and diplomatic self-isolation through non-alignment. Today th

region can be considered largely stable save for the simmering South China Sea dispute.

This is ASEAN's chance to assert its collective voice, with American backing, vis-à-vis China and ensure

that no single power dominates these crucial waters. The same applies to the issue of China's rampant