Brexit, Regional Integrations and ASEAN - A talk by Dr. David Camroux

Abstract

The unexpected decision of British voters in end June 2016 for their country to leave the European Union created something of a political shock throughout the world. Not only did it call into question a teleological view that the EU would continue along the path of an ever closer union, it also indirectly raised questions on the inevitability, and indeed desirability, of regional integration in other parts of the world. In ASEAN in particular, where the EU had always represented a reference point (if not a model), the repercussions were profound. This lecture is divided into three parts. The first concerns the causes (both immediate and proximate) of the Brexit vote and its still largely unknown consequences. The second section attempts to draw out some lessons for regional processes generally. In the third section I attempt to tease out some specific considerations for ASEAN itself.

About Dr. David Camroux

Dr David Camroux is Resident Senior Associate within the Centre de Recherches Internationales (CERI). At Sciences Po he is also an Honorary Associate Professor at the Institut d'Études Politiques (IEP) in Paris where he has taught on contemporary Southeast Asian society, EU-Asian relations and Asian regional integration. Since September he has been a Professorial Fellow at the Vietnam National University (USSH, Hanoi.

He has been a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics, the Central European University, Gadjah Mada University, the University of Yangon and Korea University. Working in an interdisciplinary way at the interface between Comparative Politics and International Relations, he is the author of numerous articles on Southeast Asian politics and history, the international relations of the Asia-Pacific and EU-Asia relations. He is at present completing a monograph co-authored with Don Pathan entitled Islamic Insurrection, Identity, Irredentism: Thailand’s Deep South. He is also undertaking a comparative study of the TPP and TTIP.

David Camroux graduated from the University of Sydney (BA Hons) and read for his doctorate at the Sorbonne nouvelle (Paris III). He is the co-editor of The Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs. He is a regular commentator on Southeast Asian and Pacific affairs for French media. Outside of academia, he is a member of the Asia-Pacific Committee advising the International Secretariat of the governing party in France.