The former Secretary-General of ASEAN, Mr. Rodolfo C. Severino, launched his new book entitled "Southeast Asia in Search of an ASEAN Community", at the ASEAN Secretariat on Monday, 20 November 2006.

"Southeast Asia in Search of an ASEAN Community"

Speaking to the ASEAN policy-makers, scholars, diplomats and journalists present at the event, Mr. Severino said that the objective of his book was "to seek clarification of what ASEAN is and is not, what ASEAN can and cannot do." He hoped that the book, which he described as neither a 'memoir' nor a 'scholarly' publication, would contribute to a better understanding of ASEAN.

The author, Mr. Rodolfo C. Severino

The 489-page book, published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in Singapore, dwells on pertinent issues such as the 'ASEAN Way', ASEAN membership, ASEAN's non-interference policy, regional security, regional economic integration, external relations, community building, as well as the future of ASEAN. In writing the book, Mr. Severino drew from his extensive interviews with personalities closely involved with ASEAN affairs as well as his own direct experiences while serving as a diplomat in the Philippine Foreign Service and as the Secretary-General of ASEAN during 1998 to 2002.

From left to right: Mr. Severino, Mr. Ong Keng Yong, the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Mr. Jusuf Wanandi, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board at CSIS	Participants at the book launch at the ASEAN Secretariat

The co-host of the book launch, Mr. Jusuf Wanandi, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at the Centre for International and Strategic Studies (CSIS) in Indonesia, called the book a must-read for people looking for insight into what ASEAN had been doing and was trying to achieve since it was formed almost four decades ago.

Mr. Severino is currently a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at ISEAS. Apart from his stint as the Secretary-General of ASEAN from 1998 to 2002, he was also formerly the Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines, and the Philippine Ambassador to Malaysia.