From Crisis to Regional Cooperation: ASEAN’s Agency in Managing Rivalry

Lyu, Mengting

From Crisis to Regional Cooperation: ASEAN’s Agency in Managing Rivalry

James Alexander Gordon on 15th January 2026

Author Information

Mengting Lyu, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Abstract

The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis marked a turning point in East Asian regionalism by exposing the limits of existing global and Asia-Pacific crisis-management mechanisms. This paper examines ASEAN Plus Three as a case of ASEAN’s agency in transforming crisis and rivalry into regional cooperation. It asks how ASEAN managed pressures from external power influence, represented by dissatisfaction with U.S. and IMF-centred crisis responses, while also navigating competition among regional powers, especially China and Japan. The paper argues that ASEAN’s role was not based on material dominance, but on institutional brokerage. By bringing together China, Japan, and South Korea within the ASEAN Plus Three framework, ASEAN created a flexible and informal platform that allowed regional powers to participate without resolving questions of hierarchy or leadership. The framework also helped channel China–Japan competition into dialogue, participation, and regional public-goods provision. Through agenda-setting, convening power, and the diffusion of consensus-based practices, ASEAN transformed a moment of regional vulnerability into a durable mechanism for East Asian collaboration. The study contributes to debates on Asian regionalism by showing that informality can function as a practical tool of crisis management and rivalry mediation, and that ASEAN’s agency lies in its ability to manage political ambiguity while sustaining incremental cooperation.