ASEAN and Indonesias foreign policy: 50 years on

In his speech commemorating ASEANs 50th birthday, Indonesias President Joko Widodo reminded ASEAN to maintain its unity and centrality lest it be drawn deeper into a great-power rivalry that would undermine the security of individual member states. Indeed, the threat of great-power rivalry in Southeast Asia strongly motivated Indonesia to establish ASEAN with Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand in August 1967. Fifty years later, a similar threat has returned amid nagging doubts that Indonesia can mitigate it through ASEAN.