ASEAN think tanks, policy change and economic cooperation: from the Asian financial crisis to the global financial crisis

Abstract

Using discourse institutionalism this article traces how Asian think tanks have provided valuable input for informing and articulating alternative economic narratives in the wake of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis (AFC) and the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2007–2008. Starting with the AFC, think tanks began to cultivate a move away from dominant western economic policy approaches towards more ‘Asian’-style solutions. These solutions included new policy programmes focused on creating ‘sustainable and balanced’ economic growth and protecting vulnerable populations from the negative impacts of financial downturns. Regulatory and institutional changes reflecting these new narratives helped shelter the Asian financial sector during the GFC a decade later. The GFC also created additional critical junctures permitting think tanks to coordinate new policy solutions concerning financial regulation and foster an emerging regional economic identity.

A World in Crisis, a World in Progress: Growing Better Together

“…The Asian financial crisis of the 1990s followed by the global financial crisis of 2008 collectively marked a turning point in terms of the role that Asian think tanks played in policy reform. They now began to be seen as "carriers of the new discourse" (Zimmerman and Stone 2018). Remarkably, Asian think tanks responded to the crises in three significant ways, shaping their structure and thematic foci, as explained in Figure 6.3.…”

Continuing the narrative turn in public administration research

“…Through selective choosing of the evidence, the narrative prevails in allowing government to move in the desired direction. And Zimmerman and Stone (2018) show that governments need not be central to creating influential narratives. They reveal Asian think tanks relying on theories of regional integration to construct stories depicting Asian countries nudging aside the neo-liberalism of the West in favour of more suitable approaches to economic well-being.…”

An introduction to critical studies of think tanks

“…The literature on think tanks also underscores these ties by analysing the 'niches' (Abelson 2016) 'constituencies' (Plehwe 2014) or 'webs of influence' (Plehwe 2015) that think tanks occupy in order to form, endure and produce meaningful interventions. Some of these networks and communities are transnational in scope, relaying the growing diversity of sites that think tanks have incorporated to mediate the flow of ideas (Carroll 2014;Carroll and Carson 2003;McGann 2002;Stone 2004Stone , 2013Zimmerman and Stone 2018). For example, Zimmerman (Chapter 9) illustrates how the knowledge and expert discourse mobilized by think tanks can generate considerable influence in transnational arcades like ASEAN where more conventional governance structures are weak or underdeveloped, while Alam (Chapter 5) examines the circuitry that allows think tanks to amplify industrial interests through the interplay between scientific credentials and the governing institutions of the EU.…”