The primary purpose of this thesis was to investigate if the modern Phillips Curve is valid for ASEAN five (Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Philippines) countries using a time-varying approach in the form of an ARMA-GARCH model. The method enables us to investigate how the inflation volatility reacts to economic shocks and if its history can predict the conditional variance of inflation. This study also aimed to investigate whether financial liberalisation affects the conditional variance of inflation. Moreover, we introduce a new parameter into the Phillips Curve. We propose the inclusion of a globally decomposed financial spillover index to see how it affects the inflation dynamics. Examining the period between 1996-2020, using monthly data. We find weak results, and the Phillips Curve was only valid for Singapore. Our findings also suggest that the inflation volatility is highly time-varying, indicating the suitability of the ARMA-GARCH framework. Significant coefficients in the model allow forecasting the conditional variance of inflation. The results support the idea that financial liberalisation to be volatility augmenting in some countries, suggesting a negative relationship between the degree of financial integration and received spillover effects. The globally decomposed spillover indices demonstrated weak results. For further investigations, we, therefore, propose the usage of regionally decomposed spillover indices.

The objective of this paper is to assess the bilateral exports from an origin to a destination, in the context of countries belonging to the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and whether or not the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) leads to trade creation or trade diversion, or both. To study this, a panel gravity model is employed with 135 countries, from 2000-2014, using a Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood method (PPML). To study the impact of AFTA on trade creation/diversion, a set of three dummy variables are used, denoting whether the origin country belongs to ASEAN, whether the destination country belongs to ASEAN and finally, whether both origin and the destination countries belong to ASEAN. Along with AFTA, five other Regional Trade Agreements (RTA) are also taken into account. The main finding of this paper is that there is no pure trade creation nor pure trade diversion due to AFTA, but rather a significant export trade creation, that is, ASEAN’s exports to the rest of the world is positive and significant. Future policy implications could include measures to strengthen the regional economic cooperation amongst the members of ASEAN.

The aim of the thesis is to analyze the trade cooperation between the Czech Republic and ASEAN countries. The thesis examines the scope and content of trade between selected countries, the cooperation between countries is increasing due to the liberalization of trade and bilateral relations. The theoretical part defines main concepts that are associated with international trade, trade policy, trade and bilateral relations between the countries. The analytical part is dedicated to correlation, cluster analysis, a composite indicator and convergence. Finally, the obtained results are discussed and several recommendations for trade cooperation are suggested.

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This study studies the way trafficking for sexual exploitation is constructed by the EU and the ASEAN by analyzing their discourse in their policies. Further, the study also seeks what potential implications exist in the policiesand how it is problematized. The following policy documents; Directive2011/36/EU, The EU Strategy on Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings 2021-2025, ASEAN Convention Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and lastly, ASEAN Plan of Action Against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, were analyzed in order to meet the aim of the study. The discourse analysis of the thesis is called “What’s the problem represented to be?” and will be used as the analytical framework, while the framing theory acts as the theoretical framework. The results of the study reveal that trafficking for sexual exploitation is a problem of law enforcement and judicial cooperation, a violation of human rights, and due to gender inqeuality according to the EU, while the ASEAN consider the issue as a regional problem benefitting from poor regional instruments, a violation of human rights and increasing government corruption and lacking criminalisation. Further, the way the organizations construct victims endorses gender stereotypes.

Legitimacy is arguably one of the most salient concepts in the political science discipline, affecting all forms of political life. In this dissertation, I explore how legitimacy influences the behavior of state and non-state actors in violent and non-violent contested spaces in three separate cases. The first paper examines the mechanisms through which structural factors and micro-level conditions translate into civilian support for insurgents. While the literature has largely assumed that civilians are rational actors driven by interests, immediate utility calculations represent only one of the mechanisms through which civilian support can be reached. Evidence from the interviews I conducted during my fieldwork in Thailand demonstrate that weak insurgents who have limited capacity can still leverage shared ethnic identity to build support through trust and legitimacy. Building off these findings, I propose that utility, trust, and legitimacy constitute three mechanisms that exist along a continuum, with utility being purely interest-based driven, trust being a combination of interest and moral calculations, and legitimacy being rooted in moral obligation. The second paper identifies the various conditions that lead to ASEAN taking action in response to domestic crises within its member states. Through elite interviews with top ASEAN bureaucrats and diplomats, I first identify four conditions that motivate ASEAN action, two of which are tied to its internal legitimacy concerns, while the other two are derived from its desire to maintain external legitimacy in the eyes of the international community. Combing through thousands of official ASEAN documents, I then build an original dataset on ASEAN action and inaction, and run a qualitative comparative analysis to further determine how these conditions relate to each other. I find that ASEAN is ultimately more concerned with maintaining its internal legitimacy. The two pathways leading to the organization taking action are 1) when they have grounds to justify their action, and 2) when there is a threat of external interference and the member state does not feel like its domestic interests are being threatened. In the third paper, I rely on interviews, participation in two consultation processes, and both manual and automated text analysis to map out the causes and consequences of regime complexity in the Mekong subregion, where nine informal institutions and one treaty-based organization operate with similar member states and functional scopes. I find that the institutions including an external partner as a member state were established as vehicles to legitimate the external state’s influence in the region. These institutions therefore engage in competition with each other, which leads to functional repetition. Meanwhile, the Mekong-led institutions seek institutional legitimacy by establishing niche areas, and thus avoid competition with each other. However, the most effective way for an institution to gain legitimacy appears to be through the availability of large amounts of funding, as these financial considerations determine which institution the Mekong member states prioritize in their engagement.

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No / A significant potential beneficial impact of foreign direct investment arises from a foreign affiliate's propensity to purchase inputs from suppliers in the host economy. This issue is of particular interest where the host is a developing country and the linkage is likely to contribute to the development of local suppliers. We compare variations in local input linkages across four countries: Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Viet Nam, all member countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Using multiple linear regressions, our findings indicate that the degree of local input linkages is highest when foreign affiliates perform a strategic role in the transnational corporation network and are embedded in the host economy. Non-firm factors are also important determinants, especially the industry of investing firms and the existence of a supply base. Building on the findings, a series of policies to enhance supplier-foreign affiliate linkages are proposed.

A normative study of a regional organisation exercising governance using Global governance as a guiding theory. Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is one of the biggest regional organisations, often compared to the European Union (EU) in terms of efficacy and non-legal binding approach, as well as the non-conformity of western liberal ideology. This thesis conducts a case study of ASEAN through the lens of interpretivist ontology and epistemology using critical discourse analysis while considering the deviation of the regional history, experience, and identity. The inevitable fully leaning reliance on technology that runs the societal and political infrastructure today has resulted in many states and regions to develop their Privacy law or internet governance. The thesis analyses frameworks, publications, and dialogues among ASEAN Member states as well as their dialogue partners. The texts are placed within the discursive practices that ASEAN functions as a collective entity in international relations in which governance no longer requires an official body of government. ASEAN’s long record of cooperation has always been motivated by economic prosperity. There is a notable growing concerns of privacy which is in need of data protection, ASEAN has displayed the realisation as well as a potential and gradual shift into a mindset where digital footprint can transcend from a nascent norm into what other community might take for granted as a universal right to the general public and the basic obligation of the government.

Les « trois organisations soeurs », à savoir la Commission du Codex Alimentarius (CCA), l’Organisation mondiale de la santé animale (OIE) et la Convention internationale pour la protection des végétaux (CIPV), et les mesures sanitaires et phytosanitaires de l’ASEAN maintiennent une relation mutuellement étroite et des rapports d’interactions complexes et multidimensionnelles, rapports qui peuvent affecter des flux d’activités d’importation et d’exportation de produits agro-alimentaires réglementées surtout par le droit international économique. En envisageant le droit comme processus de décisions, particulièrement le droit international comme processus de communication entre les différents participants de la « communauté mondiale », ces rapports peuvent être mieux identifiés et compris à tous les niveaux : multilatéral, régional, bilatéral et national. Compte tenu de l’intensité et de la fréquence des échanges et du caractère fortement interdépendant du monde d’aujourd’hui, les « trois organisations soeurs » et leurs normes, directives et recommandations sont susceptibles de jouer divers rôles dans la promotion d’une plus grande production et d’un plus large partage des valeurs fondamentales recherchées par l’humanité entière, soutenues par la « New Haven School of International Law ». Non seulement s’agit-il des rôles liés à l’augmentation de l’efficacité du processus de réduction de barrières commerciales résultant des mesures SPS protectionnistes, mais aussi de ceux qui sont peu soulignées et qui se précisent suite aux pratiques répétées des décisionnistes de l’ASEAN. Ce sont notamment les rôles en tant qu’inducteurs de performance pour les mécanismes d’encadrement de mesures SPS, afin de s’assurer que celles-ci sont raisonnables par rapport à chaque contexte spécifique et respectueuses de la dignité humaine ; en tant que catalyseurs du régionalisme ouvert ; et en tant que promoteurs de la dimension du développement dans les accords commerciaux régionaux de l’ASEAN. / The « three sisters », namely the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), and SPS measures of ASEAN maintain a mutually close relationship and can interact with one another in complex and multidimensional ways, which can affect flows of import and export activities of agro-food products regulated especially by international economic law. By perceiving law as a process of decisions, and particularly international law as a process of communication among different participants of the « world community », these interactions can be better identified and comprehended at all levels : multilateral, regional, bilateral and national. Considering the intensity and frequency of exchanges and the strong interdependency of today’s world, the « three sisters » and their standards, guidelines and recommendations are likely to play numerous roles in promoting a greater production and wider distribution of fundamental values that all human beings desire to maximize and achieve, as defended by the « New Haven School of International Law ». Not only are these roles related to the promotion of a more efficient process of eliminating trade barriers deriving from SPS protectionist measures, but also those which are insufficiently highlighted, yet becoming more obvious through repeated practices of ASEAN decision-makers. These are notably the roles of the « three sisters » as performance drivers for monitoring mechanisms of SPS measures with a view to ensuring that they are reasonable in each specific context and respectful towards human dignity; as catalysts of open regionalism ; as promoters of the development dimension in regional trade agreements concluded by ASEAN.