Understanding the functions of the ASEAN Way in Great Power Management: The Co-constitution between Social Structure and Agency in International Society of States in East Asia

Sammanfattning: This thesis aimed to capture a deeper understanding of the functions and roles of the long standing norms of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) characterized as the ASEAN Way codified in an ASEAN-led multilateral institution, the East Asia Summit (EAS). Based on a comparative case study between the US and China, and using a theoretical thematic analysis, this thesis addressed what the functions of the ASEAN Way are in great power management in this new geopolitical landscape. Drawing from the English School of International Relations, this thesis proposed that the ASEAN Way is better understood through the framework of the co-constitution between social structure and agency in the international society of states in East Asia. The thesis illuminated that the functions of the ASEAN Way differ between the US and China; for the US, the ASEAN Way functions as a tool to legitimize the US primacy role and engagement in the region, as well as an instrument enabling to achieve foreign policy goal of Pivot balancing policy to engage in multilateral institutions. For China, the ASEAN Way serves as a tool to justify and legitimize Chinese choice of actions, policy preferences and to balance against US interference in domestic affairs and US influence in the multilateral institutions. However, the functions of the norm for the two great power are fundamentally the same involving power and social legitimacy.