ASEAN as Consensus-Building Model: Chairship System in International Politics
Sanae Suzuki (Research Fellow, Institute of Developing Economies (IDE), Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO))
It is with great honor that I receive this prestigious Award. I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Foundation and the professors of the selection committee. My research is a study on the reconciliation of differing interests within ASEAN, a major player in the Asia-Pacific today. ASEAN makes its decisions by consensus. Under this consensus procedure, each member state is given veto power, though they do not necessarily exercise their veto. ASEAN member states continue to build consensus on various issues, regardless of the difficult conflicting interests they hold. This may mean they sometimes purposely refrain from vetoing. Under what conditions do the member states not veto? To answer this question, I propose the “Chairship System” in an attempt to prove that this system acts as a rule for reconciliation of conflicting interests which induces member states to refrain from vetoing. Under this system, a certain member state chairs and sets the agenda of the meeting giving it an opportunity to reflect its interests in ASEAN’s policy. In my research, I verified the process in which consensus building in ASEAN is made possible due to member states refraining from vetoing, despite knowing the intentions of the chair state and allowing it certain authority. Several times I visited Southeast Asian countries to collect primary resources and interview policymakers. I rediscovered the importance of interviewing to establish a better sense of reality. I was also given opportunities to attend ASEAN meetings as an observer, to witness reconciliation first-hand, which helped to further develop my research. Decision-making by consensus is quite common in international organizations and conferences other than ASEAN. But there are few studies on how conflicting interests are reconciled in decision-making by consensus. This Award greatly encourages me to continue to carry out my studies on decision-making mechanism in other various international and regional organizations.
Education:
M.A. in International Relations, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo, March 2001 Ph.D. in International Relations, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo, July 2011
Professional Career:
Research Fellow, Institute of Developing Economies (IDE), 2001 Visiting Research Fellow, Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), Malaysia, 2005-2006 Visiting Research Fellow, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Indonesia, 2006-2007
