AP Photo

For all of its 45-year history, the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has tottered on the brink of dysfunction. Last week, that stumbling veered dangerously close to the edge when the host of this year's annual summit, Cambodia's dictator-Prime Minister Hun Sen, openly acted as a proxy for China in its dispute with four ASEAN members over ownership of islets and shoals in the resource-rich South China Sea. Hun Sen's attempt to slip through a resolution backing China's position that the territorial dispute should not be "internationalized" outraged several member states, especially the Philippines and Vietnam, both of which have in recent months been confronted by aggressive Chinese surveillance vessels in their waters.