Brick by Brick

Rome was not built in a day, so the saying goes. To the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), it will be another four years before it reaches its stated goal of becoming a regional community. That's the target year when Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam are expected to have completed integrating their economies, harmonizing their political and security interests and enhancing their sociocultural linkagesthe three interlocking pillars of their community.

In 2008, ASEAN enacted its landmark Charter, the foundation of a "rules-based and people-oriented organization with its own legal personality," as Thai secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan put it. Initially, it was greeted with skepticism, particularly over the way the principles attending the establishment of an ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR)appeared to contravene the prevailing sociopolitical norms of some member states. Yet as imperfect as it may still be in the eyes of its critics, the body has been up and running since late 2009.

Integrating the region's diverse economies into a single entity, however, has been significantly more difficult and complicated. Hence the creation of an ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) Scorecard, to monitor the development of the various elements needed to reach true integration.