Ernest Z. Bower – författare

The U.S.-ASEAN Strategy Commission was organized by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to provide useful and practical recommendations to American policymakers with the objective of developing a long-term U.S. strategy to deal with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries and the ASEAN organization. The commission’s recommendations and findings are based on thorough research, including meetings in the region over the past eight months with high ranking political and business leaders and on the extensive experience that commission members have had with the ASEAN countries over many decades.

Economics is critical to Asia-Pacific affairs and to U.S. interests there. The region accounts for roughly half of global GDP and trade and includes some of the world’s fast-growing economies. American growth and jobs increasingly depend on trade and investment with Asia, and many of the rules of the global economic system over the coming decades will be shaped there. Effective U.S. economic policies in the region are thus an essential complement to other dimensions of the rebalancing strategy, reinforcing and being reinforced by the military, diplomatic, and political elements. In an effort to provide practical assistance to U.S. policymakers grappling with these challenges, the CSIS Asia Team prepared short papers on a number of key economies of the Asia region: China, India, Japan, Korea, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). These papers, presented here, are intended to offer practical advice to Obama administration policymakers as they set a strategic course for economic relations with these important countries over the next four years.