Centre on Asia and Globalisation
Major Power Relations
Globalisation and Trade
Geopolitics and Technology
International Relations of Southeast Asia

International Relations of Southeast Asia

CAG will focus on two research themes: the role of Southeast Asia in global governance in the Indo-Pacific, and domestic sources of Southeast Asian foreign and strategic policies.

The polarising effects of geostrategic competition have reduced the manoeuvring space of Southeast Asian countries. Yet, Southeast Asian middle powers continue to exercise agency. We will examine the extent to which Southeast Asian countries are able to maintain strategic autonomy in the midst of great power competition, and the policy tools they use to do so. In addition, we aim to explore the strategic alternatives Southeast Asian countries pursue and how these alternatives shape the regional security architecture.

The first project is about “Securitization of Undersea Cables in the Indo-Pacific: Opportunities and Risks for Southeast Asia”. Undersea cables represent strategic infrastructure that plays an increasing role in geopolitical power dynamics. The objective of this project is to determine how Southeast Asian countries choose cable providers, and how they govern and compete in this still very ad hoc space. A second project assesses the evolving minilateral architecture and its impact on ASEAN. We are interested in partnership minilaterals such as Quad and AUKUS and their impact on ASEAN centrality, and in intra-regional minilaterals such as Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Trilateral Security Cooperation and their influence on the effectiveness of ASEAN regionalism. We investigate the following questions: To what extent do these minilateral arrangements erode ASEAN regionalism? And under what conditions are they mutually supportive?

A second project will examine domestic politics and structures of Southeast Asian countries as significant drivers of their foreign and strategic policies. More specifically, it will analyze how presidential agency and domestic politics shape foreign policy choices on South China Sea by examining how the Philippines and Vietnam chose to cooperate by conducting joint military exercises despite their competing claims. In so doing, they seem to set a new blueprint for handling South China Sea disputes.

The strategic competition between the United States and China is often seen as a rivalry confined to the two great powers alone, in which secondary states such as those in Southeast Asia have little influence and will inevitably end up “choosing sides”. However, this assumption overlooks how the domestic politics of Southeast Asian states shape their foreign policies. Furthermore, if the United States or China is to attain a leadership role and legitimacy in the region, it requires the validation, support, and deference of smaller states, none of which can be achieved without consideration of domestic politics. Thus, this project underscores the domestic determinants of the foreign policy of Southeast Asian states, identifying how their concerns about economic security, political legitimacy and regional stability mediate their engagement with the United States and China.

Workshops

Publications

Principle Investigators

  • Chin-Hao Huang
  • Selina Ho

Southeast Asian states face numerous security challenges that require the assistance of external partners. China and India, two Indo-Pacific powerhouses, could offer potential solutions but their relations with Southeast Asian states vary considerably. At the same time, escalating tensions between China and India increase the risks of their engagement with Southeast Asian states leading to greater polarization in the region. By utilizing the "4-C Calculus", which comprises cost, complexity, credibility and capacity, this special issue seeks to understand how Southeast Asian states evaluate China and India as potential security cooperation partners, and whether cooperation with both—together or individually—can help address the region's security needs. The articles in this project employ the 4-C framework to analyse five key security concerns: defence modernization; health security; the post-coup crisis in Myanmar; humanitarian assistance and disaster relief; and maritime security. They contribute to the literature on security partnerships by providing fresh insights into our understanding of why and how smaller states partner with larger powers over shared security challenges, as well as by illustrating how certain policy considerations can influence the direction and quality of security partnerships.

Workshops

  • Workshop 1 (online), December 12, 2022.
  • Workshop 2 (in person), February 24, 2023.

Publication

Principle Investigators

  • Evan Laksmana
  • Byron Chong

The survey gauges how Southeast Asians think about their own identity amidst US-China competition. It was completed in June 2022.

Point person

  • Yongwook Ryu

The COVID-19 pandemic presents an unprecedented opportunity to assess our collective ability to respond to emergencies. The pandemic is especially indicative of both the technical/institutional capacities as well as social and political will to ensure the well-being of vulnerable populations. Governments and communities’ response to the various health, social, economic, and psychological challenges triggered by the pandemic also inform our understanding of the degrees of emergency preparedness and aptitude to overcome major existential crises. In other words, the on-going pandemic crisis itself presents an opportune moment to gage the degrees of emergency preparedness and “fitness” of governments, communities, and transnational actors to address a major existential crisis.

Currently, there are no mechanisms for systematic in-depth, cross-country assessment of crisis preparedness accounting for social protection provisions at transnational, state, and local levels. Yet such assessment is critical for understanding both the challenges and opportunities to support persons in precarious circumstances in times of emergency. At the same time, examining the vast range of practices, tools and responses to the pandemic can provide governments, transnational actors, and civil society organizations with access to information and best practices that could be scaled and replicated.

The project establishes an initial conceptualization of an assessment mechanism, the Emergency Preparedness Index. The pilot version captures data findings on social protection extended to migrants across Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore.

Workshop

  • Workshop, November 17, 2021

Principle Investigator

  • Marina Kaneti