Over the past decade, the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have experienced dramatic economic growth. But economic transformation has created a number of
new policy challenges, which the ASEAN governments must address as they prepare for the twenty-first century.
New Challenges for ASEAN examines some of the most important policy issues confronting ASEAN governments. These include the degradation of the maritime and urban environments, new strains on
inter-ethnic relations, domestic and international pressures to ensure the protection of human rights, growing barriers to trade with the outside world, and security concerns arising from a
changing regional balance of power. The responses of the ASEAN governments to these challenges, at domestic, regional, and international levels, are critically examined by a group of experts
with longstanding interest in Southeast Asian affairs.