Reconciling Nation and Region: Vietnamese Nation Building and Asean Regionalism

Abstract

The article sets out to gauge the usefulness of the concepts of legitimacy, sovereignty and nation in theorising a specific, South‐East Asian case of nation building. It looks at the interplay between nation building and regionalist ideology in Vietnam, within the context of the Association of South‐East Asian Nations (ASEAN). As one of the world's last communist states, the way in which Vietnam has reconciled hard‐won sovereignty with regionalisation is all the more intriguing. The article distinguishes the state‐led ideology of regionalism from the macro‐level process of regionalisation in charting how sovereignty, legitimacy and nation are constructed in the Vietnamese case, with a view to drawing parallels with experiences in other regions. The first section looks at the concepts of legitimacy, sovereignty and nation and how they underpin the state construct, before relating these to Vietnam's ongoing nation‐building project in the second section. The final section evaluates the evolution of these concepts within a regional framework, with specific reference to Vietnam's experience as a member of ASEAN. It concludes that official nation building in Vietnam continues to be based on the premises of state sovereignty and legitimacy, an approach eminently compatible with ‘the ASEAN way’. The Vietnamese Communist party seeks to reconcile regionalism with its ongoing nation‐building project in a bid to bolster both domestic legitimacy and external sovereignty.

Regulatory Regionalism and the Dynamics of Territorial Politics: The Case of the Asia-Pacific Region

“…The latter perspective sees national political elites and state institutions as entrenched and resistant to the encroachment of regional institutions into sovereign functions. Constructivist approaches, which have become more visible in recent years, essentially fit into these intellectual traditions, but emphasise the constructed nature of regional identities as an important manifestation of regionalism in practice (Acharya and Stubbs, 2006; Fawn, 2009, p. 31; Sutherland, 2009).…”

“…Conventional wisdom would have it that the Asia-Pacific region is inhospitable to governance innovation, because of the persistence of strong states that guard their sovereignty jealously (see Ravenhill, 2009). Claire Sutherland (2009), for example, has argued that the ‘ASEAN way’ with its emphasis on consensual decision making and non-intervention has been highly compatible with the Vietnamese government's ongoing nation-building project (also Narine, 2004). Yet to a surprising degree the Asia-Pacific region has witnessed the emergence of a variety of new modes of regional governance.…”

Nation Branding as Nation Building: China’s Image Campaign

“…Thus, an essential feature of nation building lies in its attempts to create loyalty to a communal identity. In this way, the process of nation building is a form of integration and shifting sovereignties from kinship or ethnic group to the nation-state [40].…”

Introduction: nationalism in Southeast Asia

“…Today, everything from regional integration, through transnational migration and trafficking, to the global flow of goods and capital conspires to undermine the notion that the state is in full control of a neatly bounded territory and its residents (Agnew ; Ong ). Paradoxically, as globalisation is weakening the sovereignty of individual states, these increasingly seek strong commitments from their citizens to maintain the nation‐state construct (Sutherland ; Tønnesson and Antlöv : 2). This themed section, in turn, is concerned with how people at the geographical and symbolic margins of specific Southeast Asian states are implicated in nation‐building.…”