1. Full name: Lena Le                                                            2. Gender: Female

3. Date of birth: 23/11/1984                                                   4. Place of birth: Hanoi

5. Admission decision number: 3216/2014/QĐ-XHNV-SĐH; dated December 30th, 2014 by the Rector of National University of Hanoi, Vietnam

6. Changes in academic process: Decision on modifying the doctoral dissertation title and adjustment of instructors, No. 2227/QĐ-XHNV; dated July 8th, 2016 by the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

7. Official thesis title:  The role of ASEAN in political and security cooperation in East Asia from 1995 to 2015.

8. Major: International Relations              Code: 62 31 02 06

9. Supervisors: Assoc. Prof., Dr. Hoang Khac Nam

10. Summary of the new findings of the thesis:

- The thesis synthesizes concepts and assumptions about the role of international actors from the approaches of different prevalent international relation theories.

- The thesis adopts Social Network Analysis and the concept of institutional legitimacy as a new approach to understand the role of international actors, in particular the role of ASEAN.

- By using Social Network Analysis and institutional legitimacy, the thesis analyses the transformation of ASEAN’s role in political and security cooperation in East Asia between 1991 and 2015 and determines fundamental factors that influence the role of the Association.

- The findings of the thesis present recommendations to ASEAN and Vietnam to maintain the role of the Association in the future.

11. Practical applicability, if any:

- The results of the thesis will be a document for policy-making, teaching and researching into the role of actors in international relations in general, the role of ASEAN in East Asian political and security cooperation in particular, and the application of Social Network Analysis in International Relations.

- The value of the research results lies at its recommendations to ASEAN and Vietnam on how to maintain ASEAN’s role in the fast-changing East Asia.  

12. Further research directions, if any:

East Asia Studies

Research methods in International Relations

13. Thesis-related publications:

Le Lena (2016), “On ASEAN’s centrality: An undefined notion”, Southeast Asian Studies 10 (1999), pp.16-26.

Le Lena (2016), “Making sense of ASEAN’s centrality in political and security cooperation in East Asia after the end of the Cold War: A Social Network”, Review of World Economic and Political Issues 12 (248), pp.40-50.

Le Lena (2016), “ASEAN’s Centrality in the rising of ASEAN’s Political Security Community”, Southeast Asian Studies, pp.70-82.