This book looks at how Southeast Asian countries worked together from the end of the Cold War to the early 2000s. During this time, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) changed from a group focused on fighting the Cold War to one that wanted to bring all Southeast Asian countries together. The ASEAN countries grew economically and became more confident politically. In the 1970s and 1980s, their economic power showed how unique Southeast Asian regionalism was. But in 1997, the Asian economic crisis made them rethink how they were developing as a region.