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“Strengthening the Economic and Social Stability of the Region”: Teaching Regional Trade Agreements and Southeast Asia

Discussion of teaching regional trade agreements

Bram Hubbell
Bram Hubbell
3 min read
“Strengthening the Economic and Social Stability of the Region”: Teaching Regional Trade Agreements and Southeast Asia
Signing the Asean Declaration on 8 August 1967. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
From page 163 of the AP World History Course and Exam Description
From page 163 of the AP World History Course and Exam Description

Over the last two years, I’ve spent a lot of time traveling across Southeast Asia. Everywhere I went, I kept seeing billboards and banners for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It made me think about how I taught the spread of regional trade agreements and economic liberalization in the late twentieth century. I often started with the European Union/European Economic Community and described how the trend spread worldwide. But why do we have to approach this development in a Eurocentric manner? Why not start in Southeast Asia? Southeast Asian states agreed to their first regional just four years after the creation of the European Economic Community.

One of the many ASEAN signs in Jakarta in 2023. Source: Globe: Lines of Thought Across Southeast Asia.
One of the many ASEAN signs in Jakarta in 2023. Source: Globe: Lines of Thought Across Southeast Asia.

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