Multicivilizational groupings like ASEAN fail to achieve deep integration

Evidence

ASEAN is often cited as an example of an effective multicultural organization. It is, however, an example of the limits of such organizations. It is not a military alliance. While its members at times cooperate militarily on a bilateral basis, they are also all expanding their military budgets and engaged in military buildups, in striking contrast to the reductions West European and Latin American countries are making. On the economic front, ASEAN was from the beginning designed to achieve “economic cooperation rather than economic integration,” and as a result regionalism has developed at a “modest pace,” and even a free trade area is not contemplated until the twenty-first century. — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 360 (#expands, via linked claim)

I do not mean to suggest here that segregation is an innate and therefore inevitable human tendency. It is surely true that among lower-status persons segregation is more likely to be imposed than preferred. Nevertheless, as recent attempts at school and neighborhood racial integration in the United States have demonstrated, the higher-status group can make life so uncomfortable for the “integrator” that being with one’s own-however despised one’s own may be-becomes psychologically preferable. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1131 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Forced integration backfires when higher-status groups make interlopers uncomfortable — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1131; ASEAN shows the limits, not the success, of multicultural regional organizations — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 360; Subcivilizational differences block otherwise-qualified states from becoming core states — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 370 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• ASEAN shows the limits, not the success, of multicultural regional organizations #expands (0.95) — Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the…, 360
• Forced integration backfires when higher-status groups make interlopers uncomfortable #complicates (0.78) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1131