As the regional financial and economic crisis has bottomed out and the ASEAN countries are on the recovery path this volume seeks to carry out a post mortem on the crisis to evaluate the sustainability of the recovery and the long term direction of the ASEAN economies It also examines the challenges and competitiveness of these economies which have become significant issues in the post recovery process Since it is not sufficient to address the economic and financial aspects the volume also looks at the human and social dimensions such as food security poverty and cross border pollution Furthermore in the wake of the regional crisis ASEAN has been criticized as being ineffective This has prompted a re examination of the relevance of the regional grouping in its present form evaluating ASEAN s performance challenges and opportunities and assessing whether there is a need for change