Another panicky email to my supervisor

Hi Sir,

I figured I'd better give you an update on the dissertation.

I was hoping to give you the draft by Wednesday, but I'm having some difficulties.

I'm increasingly worried about the word count. The last section on post-Cold War ASEAN is taking up a lot of space. I'm worried about putting in enough details for this section, but I'm also concerned that the sections on the rules & institutions of international society are too superficial. As it is, I think I've exceeded the word count already, but I'm not done writing the last section, and I still haven't expanded the earlier sections.

Also, I'm finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile the logic of a minimalist international society (a la Bull) and a discussion of the difficulties faced by ASEAN. I think the main probem is that Bull's international society is both global and minimalist, and is not easily translated to the regional level of analysis or to the study of regional institutions.

If ASEAN collapses this does not mean a collapse of global international society. If ASEAN collapses does this mean an end to Southeast Asian international society? Prior to this we'd made a distinction between the Association and regional international society, but does this not mean that there must be a definition of Southeast Asian international society that is independent of ASEAN? If so, what defines Southeast Asian international society? If ASEAN is merely an expression of regional international society but not constitutive of regional international society, then the decline of ASEAN is not automatically equivalent to the decline of a minimalist Southeast Asian society, even though it might indicate problems with this regional society. But if my focus is on explaining regional international society, then isn't my discussion of ASEAN a bit off the mark?

I don't think it's impossible to use Bull to understand Southeast Asia. But I have a bad feeling that I need much more space to translate Bull's ideas to the regional level. Am I thinking too much into it?

Sorry for another long email! Thanks!

Regards,
Elaine