Regionalism Online: A Case Study of e-ASEAN

With the rapid advancement in new information and communications technologies (ICTs)1 geographical distance is becoming less relevant and boundaries of the nation-state are becoming increasingly permeable. We have inherited from the last century, among other things, the invention of the Internet – a global network of computer networks, which is undoubtedly a major achievement in the emancipation of cross-border human communication. The Internet was accompanied by the establishment of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which can be said to be a big step forward in multilateral or global trade liberalisation. As against the euphoria of globalisation supported in part by the Internet and the WTO, however, is the proliferation of preferential trade agreements (PTAs), which has led to renewed interest in the economics and politics of regionalism (Freund 2000). One of the most prominent examples of PTAs is the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Whilst much has already been said in the current literature about the major regional PTAs (e.g. the EU), the impact of the global communications revolution (arguably the most important globalising factor) on the development of regionalism, and vice versa, is a rather neglected area of study.