ASEAN's Role and Future Economic Cooperation Under the US-China Rivalry: The Quest for Effective Democratic Leadership

Amid the US-China rivalry, the ASEAN role and future economic cooperation are uncertain. Deploying a qualitative approach based on documents as sources of data, this study aims to suggest democratic leadership as an intervening variable and examines future possibilities of the ASEAN role and economic cooperation under the US-China rivalry. There are three ASEAN's role future possibilities under the US-China rivalry: the honest broker (best-case scenario), a partial mediator (moderate-case scenario), and a dysfunctional organisation (worst-case scenario). The gradations linearly demonstrated an interlinked connection between the cooperation engagement and outcome possibilities. This study found that the best-case prospect, "an honest broker" could be materialised by implementing democratic leadership, an equally distributed, empowered, egalitarian decision-making kind of leadership determined by willingness, capacity, and acceptance. It could optimally encourage internal economic development and effectively manage cooperation with both parties through the distribution of responsibility, group member empowerment, and assisting all members in decision-making.