The Responsibility to Provide: Implications for the Region and Beyond

This chapter draws the study to a close with a summary of the book’s key claims and arguments.Judging by the region’s mixed record, a ‘cup half full’ approach allows at best the conclusion that Southeast Asian states and ASEAN are working toward realising their aspirations and turning words into deeds. So much more remains to be done. Essentially, rather than the mere absence of conflict and war, this book has sought, through the R2Provide, to offer a positive conception of Southeast Asia’s international relations, one that ultimately aims to improve the conditions and lives of the recipient countries and societies with whom responsible providers engage – even as, it should be said, the provider countries and societies are themselves enriched for having refreshed others. What this book has presented as the growing ethic of responsible provision undertaken by Southeast Asian countries – selectively and unevenly, needless to say, but incrementally – could be the proverbial small steps leading over time to a giant leap toward a more hospitable and responsible region. Paraphrasing Levinas, faced with their others, perhaps Southeast Asians will come to demand more of themselves.