The financial crisis that began in Thailand in early July 1997 rapidly spread across the whole of East Asia and has become the biggest global economic crisis since the Great Depression of 1929. This article uses regional integration theory to explain ASEAN's failure to cope with the financial crisis. During the last fifteen years the ASEAN countries did not do much in improving their regional cooperation and integration. Instead, they, remained satisfied with their economic and political status quo. Some ASEAN countries even used this regional organization to get economic benefits, yet usually at the expense of regional strength. After the financial crisis, ASEAN will need time to recover and rejuvenate. The formal rules of game within ASEAN will gradually change so as to meet the new international economic order.