Contemporary Centres of Power — notes

Why cooperate? Wartime ruin, the wish to rule out another war among neighbours, and the Cold War.

Milestones

• 1948: Marshall Plan aid handled by the OEEC.
• 1949: Council of Europe.
• 1951: European Coal and Steel Community of six states.
• 1957: Treaty of Rome creates the European Economic Community (and Euratom).
• 1992: Maastricht Treaty creates the European Union (in force 1993).
• 1999 / 2002: the euro as an accounting currency, then notes and coins.
• 2020: the United Kingdom leaves on 31 January; 27 members remain.

More than a trade bloc: a flag (twelve stars for unity), an anthem, a currency, citizenship of the Union, and the aim of a common foreign and security policy.

Influence

• Economic: a very large single market; the euro; its standards shape trade with partners.
• Political: France sits permanently on the UN Security Council; the EU often negotiates jointly, as in climate talks.
• Military: member states together keep large forces.

Limits: national foreign and defence policies remain; members can disagree on crises; a draft constitution failed in 2005 after referendums in France and the Netherlands; some members (such as Denmark and Sweden) keep their own currencies; the UK left in 2020.

Founded: 8 August 1967, Bangkok Declaration, by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Later: Brunei 1984, Vietnam 1995, Laos and Myanmar 1997, Cambodia 1999.

ASEAN Way: informal and cooperative interaction, consensus, avoidance of confrontation, non-interference and respect for sovereignty.

Institutions and aims: ASEAN Free Trade Area (1992); the ASEAN Regional Forum (1994) for security dialogue with outside powers; in 2003 members agreed on an ASEAN Community with three pillars — political-security, economic and socio-cultural.

India: Look East policy (early 1990s) → trade in goods agreement (2009) → Act East (2014), stressing connectivity with the North-East.

Before 1978: Soviet-style planning after 1949; collective farms; state industry; little foreign trade.

Reforms from 1978 (open door):

• Farmland leased to households; surplus sold after the state quota.
• Special Economic Zones from 1980 attracted foreign investment and technology.
• Export-led industrial growth; later restructuring of state firms.
• WTO membership in 2001.

Gradual path: unlike Russia's shock therapy, China moved in stages and kept its one-party system.

Costs often cited: job losses in restructured firms, pollution, coastal–interior and rural–urban inequality, corruption.

• 1954: Panchsheel, the five principles of peaceful coexistence.
• 1962: border war; relations set back.
• 1976: ambassador-level relations restored.
• 1988: a prime-ministerial visit opens a phase of boundary talks and confidence-building.
• Since then: trade has grown very large; both work together in BRICS and climate negotiations.
• Disagreements: the boundary along the Line of Actual Control is not finally settled; tensions have flared, as in the Galwan valley clash of June 2020, followed by rounds of talks.

Write about this relationship in neutral terms: describe each side's position and the facts, not blame.

Japan: rebuilt after 1945 (Hiroshima and Nagasaki were destroyed by atomic bombs); one of the most advanced economies, strong in technology; the only Asian member of the G7; Article 9 of its constitution renounces war; a major aid giver and long-standing UN contributor; seeks a permanent Security Council seat with India, Germany and Brazil (the G4).

South Korea: Korea divided near the 38th parallel in 1945; Korean War 1950–53; rapid export-led growth from the 1960s; democratic transition in the late 1980s; both Koreas joined the UN in 1991; OECD member from 1996.

India's ties: Japanese finance and technology for metro and rail, investment and a strategic partnership; with South Korea, a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (2010) and a strategic partnership.