Sarinda Singh has an interesting piece on Laos and regional integration in the latest issue of Asian Analysis. Her conclusion provides a nice balance to many of the more ambitious claims about the erasure of national borders:

Regional integration – the aspiration of the ASEAN Charter and World Bank alike – may benefit national economies and sustainable development in the long-term but it will undoubtedly disadvantage some powerful domestic interests in the short-term. In Laos, in the environment and other sectors, it is likely that challenges to regionalisation will persist given the powerful vested interests in maintaining the status quo.