ASEAN's Strategies Towards European Union In The Post-Cold War Period

ASEAN and the EU are two regional organizations, the relationship between which has undergone a transformation from "mutual neglect" to "uneven relationship," and from the "uneven relationship" to "equal partnership". ASEAN-EU relations have changed from inequality to equality since the end of the Cold War. During this period, ASEAN and the EU strategies towards each other have guided the relations between them.The thesis analyzes the causes of the change of the ASEAN-EU relationship from both the political security strategy and the economy and trade strategy angles. In the political security field, ASEAN needs to rely on the EU to play a balancing role in order to ensure regional security. But ASEAN has taken a firm resistance strategy in the ideological interference by EU. In view of the fact that ASEAN's firm resistance strategy as well as the rise of ASEAN's influence in Asia, EU altered its political strategy and which promoted the relationship between ASEAN and EU to the equal cooperation. In the field of economy and trade, ASEAN adopted the strategy of striving for equality, thus their economy and trade relationship became less unfair. The author holds that it is because ASEAN have adopted both resistant and dependent strategies towards EU that made it obtain the equality with EU after the cold war.