whenever you read into the international
politics of Southeast Asia people do
that right or even just where Southeast
Asian countries are kind of involved
there is one little acronym that you may
occasionally see this one but what
exactly does it mean what does it
represent what are the goals behind it
what does it stand for how do you even
pronounce it this acronym is short for
the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations and is pronounced ASEAN or ASEAN
now I actually made a video about ASEAN
a few years ago but the thing is that it
was pretty obviously a few years ago but
the people of Southeast Asians still
deserve a basic explanation of this
organization so here I am yet again to
provide it ASEAN is a political
organization made up of ten nations in
Southeast Asia in geography now ordered
they are Brunei Cambodia Indonesia Lao
Malaysia Myanmar the Philippines
Singapore Thailand and Vietnam as well
as two observer States being East Timor
and Papua New Guinea ASEAN is a regional
organization whose purpose is to help
facilitate intergovernmental relations
and international trade between its
member states the group was initially
founded as the Association of Southeast
Asia or da/sa in 1961 between Thailand
the Philippines and Malaya it was then
turned into ASEAN in the ASEAN or
Bangkok declaration which get this was a
declaration signed in Bangkok more
specifically when the ASA's members were
joined by Indonesia and Singapore and
was signed with the motivation of
improving social progress cultural
development and economic growth as well
as curbing the spread of communism this
was the Cold War after all dammit I
suddenly can't get one video without
mentioning Cold War ASEAN member states
have a combined population of over 600
million and a combined GDP of two and a
half trillion dollars
ASEAN is led by a secretary-general
chosen from one of its member states for
a single non-renewable five-year term
osteons headquarters are in Jakarta
Indonesia and the organization operates
under the ASEAN Charter which is
essentially the closest thing they have
to
institution which calls for everything
from goals of peace and cooperation to
having their own flag anthem and an
annual ASEAN day on the 8th of August to
mark the date of the Bangkok declaration
which is this Thursday if you want us to
know I guess I timed this video right
the organization also has foreign trade
agreements with countries like China
Japan India and Australia and some of
its member states can be seen flying
their flag and osteons flag in places
like their embassies so from the sound
of this honestly on is basically the EU
of Southeast Asia right well not exactly
the European Union is essentially a well
a union between many of the countries of
Europe that strongly integrates their
populations and economies ASEAN is a
little different as they are a closely
knit intergovernmental organization this
means that if someone from Bangkok were
to work in Singapore they would still
have to apply for a work permit go
through customs and immigration at
Changi Airport exchanged their tie pot
for Singapore dollars and all the other
stuff that usually comes with getting a
job in a foreign country
however they are kind of toying around
with the idea of a new common currency
based on the Asian currency unit which
is something called a currency basket
between a bunch of different currencies
around East Asia kind of like the
European currency unit which was the
predecessor to the euro but that's a
story for another time
basically ASEAN is not the EU but it is
still important for the individual
nations of Southeast Asia as it
effectively serves as a kind of union
between the governments especially in
the wake of various world powers
knocking on their doorstep while many
ASEAN member nations have good relations
with China and some with both China and
the US China however is making things a
little difficult in the South China Sea
the South China Sea is home to some of
the world's most important sea lanes and
a crap-ton of oil and fish and many
ASEAN nations have overlapping claims in
its own so important waters the
Philippines claims these waters Malaysia
claims these Brunei B's and Vietnam B's
and then China just kind of does this
regardless of whose side you're on
that's not gonna make the other
countries happy and in the Spratly I was
right in the middle
countries can claim even more land for
themselves and thus expand their
territorial waters even further and
you've got a geopolitical volcanoes that
even a social studies youtuber like me
is way too cowardly to dive into and
will promptly distract you with
something else Hey look visa policies
every Ostia member also grants visa-free
access to every other Ostia member for
right there fourteen or thirty days
except for citizens of Myanmar Malaysia
who both need to navies in to visit each
other's countries in addition many other
nationalities can visit most or all of
the ASEAN countries without a visa or
with just an electronic visa and so
intra ASEAN travel has become incredibly
commonplace I mean even this dork has
done a tourism is an important source of
revenue for these countries especially
yes according to ASEAN org around a
hundred nine million tourists visited
the ASEAN countries in 2015 and directly
and directly accountable for around ten
percent of their total annual revenue
and directly employing around nine
million people for good reason too as
Bangkok has become the most visited city
in the world for a few years now with
Singapore Kuala Lumpur Phuket Pat SIA
and Bali not too far behind either
although I didn't mention them in my
super powers video ASEAN is still
nevertheless an important and rapidly
emerging power in today's world although
there are still plenty of critiques to
be made about its actions or in most
cases black thereof this is specifically
including lack of human rights promotion
in politically troubled areas as well as
environmental issues coming from intense
pollution in other areas critics often
call out the organization for being more
talk than action for these reasons
nevertheless ASEAN is still growing
organization and as big aims for the
future notably with establishing a kind
of pan asean identity within the near
future Southeast Asia is most certainly
set for an interesting future so I guess
the best we can do right now is to just
wait and see what unfolds now Southeast
Asia is fast becoming a major tourist
destination and for good reason well
with its distinct history and cultures
there's a reason I went there earlier
this summer
the thing is though travel always
requires preparation which is why I'd
recommend you check out atlas on route
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