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Two Decades of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM)

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Inter-Regional Relations and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM)

Abstract

This chapter provides the overall framework for the more detailed discussion of the themes dealt with in other chapters. It starts with a cursory overview of the evolving breadth of issue areas ASEM has aimed to tackle in the course of two decades. It thereafter looks at the particularities of ASEM’s institutional design, in order to explain the “ASEM Way,” marked by a focus on informality, consensus, and dialogue. The chapter sketches ASEM’s changing contours as an interregional forum. Looking to the future, the analysis singles out the tension between informality and institutionalization, and the different opinions on whether to prioritize dialogue or tangible outcomes, as two of ASEM’s key internal challenges.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Finnish Institute of International Affairs, Helsinki, Finland

    Bart Gaens

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  1. Bart Gaens
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Correspondence to Bart Gaens .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Finnish Institute of Int. Affairs , Helsinki, Finland

    Bart Gaens

  2. Brussels, Belgium

    Gauri Khandekar

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Gaens, B. (2018). Two Decades of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). In: Gaens, B., Khandekar, G. (eds) Inter-Regional Relations and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59764-9_2

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