In theoretical terms the pressures that ASEAN faces today could be depicted as a clash between the old and new regionalism. Old regionalism has been characterized as a product of the cold war, as inward-looking, exclusive and created by governments for specific security or economic purposes. New regionalism, in contrast, is outward-looking, nonexclusive and multidimensional in function. In the new regionalism, transnational and overlapping linkages are established with other organizations or groups of states which endow it with a complex and multilevel character. The new regionalism is the product of the demands of state as well as nonstate actors, such as business groups and NGOs, whose needs have expanded well beyond the constraints of the sovereign
state.  Author:  Buszynski, Leszek.  Publication: Pacific Affairs, Dec 22, 1997.