Affiliation:
1. Politics and International Relations, Swansea University, Swansea, UK
Abstract
How do we explain ASEAN – a non-western, traditionally ‘weak’ actor – and the degree to which it has successfully co-opted the EU into accepting its approach to human rights? This article considers the question of human rights in the ASEAN–EU relationship. It does so by reappraising the literature on constructivism and comparative regionalism, embracing the move beyond norm diffusion and Europe to norm contestation and local actors, namely ASEAN. Building on the literature of contestation, it operationalises Mattern's model of Representational Force to analyse the case study of the ASEAN–EU relationship from the 1990s to the establishment of AICHR in 2009 and beyond where we can see contestation in action. Interestingly, through the contestation over the ‘promotion’ and ‘protection’ of human rights, there is significant scope to see how it is ASEAN that has largely co-opted the EU into supporting a uniquely ‘ASEAN’ approach to human rights in Southeast Asia.
Subject
Political Science and International Relations,Sociology and Political Science
Reference55 articles.
1. How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matter? Norm Localization and Institutional Change in Asian Regionalism
2. Constructing a Security Community in Southeast Asia
3. Acharya A (2012) Local and transnational civil society as agents of norm diffusion. Working Paper for the Global Governance Workshop. Oxford: Oxford University.
4. Allison-Reumann (2017) Should the EU be considered a model for ASEAN? East Asia Forum. Available at: http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2017/08/06/should-the-eu-be-considered-a-model-for-asean/ (accessed 30 December 2018).