ASEAN's long-term viability cannot rest on the hope that the US will peacefully counterbalance China, a passive strategy that will only facilitate the process of choosing sides. The breakdown in consensus at the 2012 ASEAN Summit held in Phnom Penh underlined this point. ASEAN would be best served by confronting regional issues directly rather than indirectly and together as a single unit. Otherwise the grouping risks serving as a pawn in a potentially destabilizing great power game.