ASEAN Centrality Research Articles

Understanding ASEAN's Perception and Response to Japan's "Indo-Pacific Strategy"

The ASEAN region is located along Japan's critical maritime lifeline and has maintained close cooperation with Japan in various fields for an extended period, making it a pivotal point for Japan's "Indo-Pacific Strategy". To successfully advance this strategy, Japan has strengthened cooperation with ASEAN and its member states in the economic and maritime security sectors through dual-track diplomacy, seeking ASEAN's recognition and support for the strategy. ASEAN views Japan's policies as beneficial to its development and capable of enhancing its strategic autonomy to some extent. However, the regional order constructed by Japan's "Indo-Pacific Strategy" undermines ASEAN's centrality in the regional security architecture and negatively impacts its amicable relations with China. To preserve its centrality, ASEAN introduced the "ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific", aiming to articulate its vision and stance clearly to maintain its central role in regional affairs. Furthermore, ASEAN employs a hedging strategy amid great power competition to safeguard its interests and actively collaborates with external countries to expand its strategic autonomy.

Strategic Ambiguity in the Time of a Second Cold War

Abstract In the competition for hegemony of major powers, it seems logical for a small or middle power state to be ambiguous on its preference. Aligning with one protagonist for protection and preferential treatment can only be at the expense of antagonizing the other. Conventional wisdom holds that hedging is practical as it allows a country to leverage on its amicable relations with both powers. The ASEAN states are caught in the middle of the U.S.–China economic rivalry as well as directly engaged in maritime disputes with China. This paper evaluates strategic ambiguity versus alignment against the backdrop of trade decoupling of rival superpowers. Using a multi-sector, multi-country Ricardian trade model, our simulation results reveal that it is in the interest of some economies to align with one of two camps, contrary to conventional wisdom. The diverse welfare effects of decoupling on member states prevent the attainment of a unified ASEAN position and undermine ASEAN centrality in curbing the risk of a second cold war.

Challenges Facing the ASEAN Political and Security Community due to the 2021 Myanmar Military Coup: The Role of ASEAN Centrality

Challenges Facing the ASEAN Political and Security Community due to the 2021 Myanmar Military Coup: The Role of ASEAN Centrality

Influence of ASEAN Centrality on Responses to the AUKUS Pact: A Comparative Study of Indonesia and the Philippines

Influence of ASEAN Centrality on Responses to the AUKUS Pact: A Comparative Study of Indonesia and the Philippines

The Successful of Strengthening ASEAN Centrality Through the ASEAN Way

Southeast Asia is a region with a strategic geographical location in global politics. History has proven that international political contestation occurred in this region from the era of colonialism at the end of the 16th century until no. This article explores how the Southeast Asian region is still a place of power rivalry and influence of major world powers such as China and the United States and, in the broader scope, the Indo-Pacific region. The research implemented Immanuel Kant's triangle of global politics and liberalism perspective to inquire into ASEAN countries' policy due to regional security and peacebuilding. It also uses literature study as a research method. The result indicates that ASEAN, established in 1967, has played a significant role in regional politics, especially in maintaining security and stability. The success of ASEAN is inseparable from the way ASEAN diplomacy with external partners by holding the principles and values believed by ASEAN member countries, known as the ASEAN Way. The values embodied in The ASEAN Way are vital to ASEAN's success Under The Indo-Pacific Strategy.
 
 Keywords: ASEAN, ASEAN Way, Indo-Pacific, Geo-Politic, Regionalism

The Role of Indonesia in Strengthening the Concept of “We Feeling” and ASEAN Identity in the 2023 ASEAN Chairmanship

This research explores Indonesia's role as the Chair of ASEAN in 2023 in promoting the concept of "We Feeling" and revitalizing the collective identity of ASEAN. Through a comprehensive analysis of Indonesia's diplomatic efforts, the policy framework it has implemented, and its active engagement at the regional level during its tenure as ASEAN Chair, this study reveals Indonesia's key role in strengthening the sense of unity, common goals, and solidarity among ASEAN member states. The research also investigates the strategies employed by Indonesia to facilitate open dialogue, enhance intra-regional cooperation, and address common challenges with the ultimate goal of reinforcing the spirit of the united ASEAN community, known as the ASEAN Community. Furthermore, this abstract explains the significance of the concept of ASEAN Centrality and Indonesia's crucial role in upholding it during its ASEAN Chairmanship. This study provides a profound understanding of Indonesia's role in guiding ASEAN toward a more cohesive, united, and relevant future. The concept of "We Feeling" serves as the foundation for these efforts, fostering closer relationships among member states and reflecting upon ASEAN's collective identity in the context of increasingly close regional cooperation.

Contested informality in regional institutional design: A comparative analysis of ASEAN and the Quad

AbstractIn terms of institutional positioning, the quartet of Indo‐Pacific states – Australia, India, Japan, and the United States – firmly endorse ASEAN. ‘ASEAN centrality’ is clearly highlighted in all Quad statements. Yet, the Quad presents an organizational and substantive challenge to the core institutional model of ASEAN. This competitive dynamic, with respect to style of associational methods (the how) as opposed to organizational purpose (the why), has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. If the literature does focus on the comparative approaches of ASEAN and the Quad, the prism is for the most part targeted on the differences with respect to the engagement with China. Our analysis is different and emphasizes the contrast between two types of institutional informality exhibited by ASEAN and the Quad. By situating our analysis in the context of contested informality, we point out that both ASEAN and the Quad are signposts showing that the foundational privilege of formal international organizations is under stress, albeit from a wide range of institutional designs. Only by detailing and evaluating the critical divergence in modes of informality can an appreciation of the nature and impact of the contest between ASEAN and the Quad be fully understood.

Regional and External Constraints of ASEAN’s Integration: The U.S.-China Conflicts, Regional Politics, and the Crisis of ASEAN Centrality

Regional and External Constraints of ASEAN’s Integration: The U.S.-China Conflicts, Regional Politics, and the Crisis of ASEAN Centrality

Kehadiran Kerjasama Keamanan Trilateral AUKUS bagi Asia Tenggara: Memaknai Perbedaan Sikap Negara Anggota dan Relevansi ASEAN

The phenomenon of the AUKUS (Australia-United Kingdom-United States Partnership) trilateral security pact has caused a polemic within ASEAN. Australia's involvement in AUKUS gives Australia the right to have eight nuclear-powered submarines, reaping the pros and cons of ASEAN countries. Vietnam and the Philippines tend to support, while Indonesia-Malaysia oppose Australia's decision. Ideally, ASEAN, which has declared itself a nuclear-free zone in the SEANWFZ (Southeast Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone), does not support Australia's decision. This paper aims to analyze the effect of different responses from ASEAN countries to ASEAN centrality as regionalism in Southeast Asia. Based on the analysis conducted with the realism perspective, it was found that the differences in the responses of ASEAN countries did not affect the centrality of ASEAN. This is based on two things, firstly the response of countries that support Australia's policy is a spontaneous response to the security situation of countries involved in the South Tiongkok Sea conflict, the two ASEANs are still relevant as a foothold for the foreign policy of ASEAN member countries, especially on the policy of the Nuclear Free Zone. For this reason, ASEAN is still relevant in the security constellation in the region.

Indonesia's Foreign Policy in the Indo-Pacific Region in the 2023 ASEAN Chair

This research discusses Indonesia's foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific region during the ASEAN chairmanship period in 2023. This is Indonesia's fourth time as ASEAN chairman, after serving three times in 1967, 2003, and 2011. This research focuses on how Indonesia contributes to stability and peace in the Indo-Pacific region through its foreign political activities, especially through implementing the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) document. The method used in this research is qualitative, with secondary data sources including books, journal articles, etc. The data collection technique is carried out through library research. Then, the research will be analyzed using qualitative data analysis techniques following the framework described by Miles and Huberman: data reduction, data presentation (data display), and drawing conclusions or verification (conclusion drawing/verification). The results show that Indonesia, in its chairmanship of ASEAN in 2023, wants to become a Regional Great Power that plays the role of norm-setting and norm-making. In ASEAN's chairmanship in 2023, one of the main focuses will be Indonesia's foreign policy activities in the Indo-Pacific region, which focuses on the implementation of AOIP, where Indonesia wants to encourage ASEAN's role in creating regional stability, peace, and progress and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. ASEAN strives to embrace large countries to collaborate in the Indo-Pacific region by strengthening ASEAN centrality, openness, inclusiveness, transparency, and respect for international law. As part of this, Indonesia hosted the ASEAN Indo-Pacific Forum (AIPF) to strengthen regional cooperation and promote economic growth. This forum hopes to utilize principles such as ASEAN centrality, inclusiveness, and transparency to achieve a more peaceful and prosperous region.

Road to ASEAN Political Security Community Vision 2025: Understanding Convergence and Divergence in ASEAN Voting Behaviors in the UNGA

While the ASEAN Political-Security Community (APSC) Blueprint 2025 envisages a centrality of regional architecture in responding to security challenges in the region, divided positions among the member states – mostly visible in the South China Sea dispute – have deepened the pessimism on the fate of APSC. Notwithstanding the persisting intra-ASEAN disunity, the organization has been projecting the goal of ASEAN centrality in the global political arena. The goal highlights ASEAN’s emerging role as the ‘hub’ of regional cooperation in Asia-Pacific hence cohesion is highly expected. This paper aims to examine ASEAN cohesion and how it aligns with the institution’s community-building project. To this aim, it primarily looks at the pattern of divergence and convergence in ASEAN voting behavior across security issues discussed in the UN General Assembly. It also underscores the underlying factors behind the emerging patterns. Using Agreement Index (AI), this paper found that ASEAN member states’ voting highly converges on colonialism, the law of the sea, the Mediterranean region, military expenditures, outer space, peace, and transnational crimes. Alternatively, voting diverges on resolutions related to arms transfer, counterterrorism, and armed conflict. Contributing factors to this pattern include member states' preferences, the identity, value, norms, and cognitive prior of the regional organization, as well as alliance and major powers’ preferences.

Seoul in India's (new) middle order convergence

AbstractAs both India and South Korea build their ties on the basis of democratic partnership and ASEAN centrality, the need for Seoul to emerge as a strong partner in India's Indo‐Pacific initiatives is vital. India's quest for a more serious multilateral network is continuously growing in the security sphere, and Korea's induction in the same via the “Plus” framework of the quadrilateral hints at potential for successful connects with other multilateral frameworks or bodies like the AIIB to balance economic assistance and development. Ultimately, the natural upgradation of India‐South Korea relations relies intensely upon the degree to which Seoul will embrace the Indo‐Pacific account that India's AEP is pitching. The merging of soft and hard power by the middle and rising power is critical to India to ensure a rules‐based international order; finding a formal place for Seoul in its Indo‐Pacific prism must emerge as a necessary focus of New Delhi.

ВНЕШНЕПОЛИТИЧЕСКИЕ ДИЛЕММЫ СТРАН АСЕАН В КОНТЕКСТЕ ФОРМИРОВАНИЯ МНОГОПОЛЯРНОГО МИРА

The article analyzes the reaction of ASEAN countries to shifts in the architecture of international relations and the global transformation of the world order associated with the destruction of the unipolar system and the formation of a new multipolar world in the context of the need to counter external challenges and threats to regional security, as well as the need to preserve the principle of ASEAN centrality .

Looking at ASEAN Centrality in the Amidst of TPP & RCEP Mega-Regional Competition

This paper attempts to understand the progressivity of economic regionalism in Southeast Asia. Unlike previous researches, this paper will explain how the complexity of Southeast Asia region affecting liberalism in ASEAN. This can be seen from how the mega-regional competition between TPP and RCEP hinders ASEAN centrality, signified by the fact that Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei chose to participate in both cooperation, despite knowing that RCEP should be part of ASEAN centrality agenda. This paper will pay attention on two types of condition: (1) understanding the transformation into mega-regional partnership in Asia-Pacific; (2) understanding the decision of four ASEAN countries who choose to participate in both mega-regional models. The theory which will be used in this paper will be the ‘new trade strategy’ developed by Aggarwal and Lee (2011). In the end, this paper finds that there is a renewal in perception, interest, and domestic institution in the creation of RCEP and TPP. Meanwhile, the decision of Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei to participate in both RCEP and TPP is the result of rational calculation in terms of economic advantage, political economy, domestic structure improvement, and security. These four calculations can be seen in all country, especially those who utilize greater economic liberalization.

The Vision of Global Maritime Fulcrum within ASEAN Centrality to Maintain Regional Stability

The purpose of this study is to discuss the vision of Global Maritime Fulcrum precisely for Indonesia’s foreign policy in the region. This study also in addition to examine the essential needs for coherence and collective response of ASEAN toward strategic rivalries US-China, then bring great risk in the vicinity, notably territorial disputes in South China Sea and following with the logical consequence of the Quad. By using the theory of Regional Security Complex by Barry Buzan, primary and secondary data related to Indonesia’s GMF in the regional architecture were processed using qualitative methods. This study also links the concept of dynamic equilibrium by Indonesia then-Foreign Minister, Marty Natalegawa, which emphasized trust and norms among all actors who were involved in the region, of which aligned with ASEAN centrality. The research result leads to the capability of Indonesia which implies if Indonesia is keen to improve its capabilities through the GMF, this vision can be considered as a tangible complementary and modality in the midst of emerging turbulence power in the region

Reinvigorating India’s ‘Act East’ Policy in an age of renewed power politics

The year 2022 marks three decades of India’s ‘Look East’ Policy (renamed the ‘Act East’ Policy in 2014). The policy emerged in the aftermath of the Cold War amid efforts by New Delhi to revive the importance of Southeast Asia (and later East Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific region) in India’s foreign policy agenda. While the policy has proven to be resilient as a core component of India’s foreign policy agenda, looking ahead it faces three key challenges: domestically, India’s reform agenda failing to match the country’s foreign policy aspirations; regionally, the principle of ‘ASEAN centrality’ coming under growing scrutiny; and globally, an international order in flux amid a more pronounced rivalry between the United States and China (which has been exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine). Addressing these issues will be key to maintaining the relevance of India’s ‘Act East’ Policy as it enters its next phase.

ASEAN Centrality: Comparative Case Study of Indonesia Leadership

For almost 60 years of establishment, ASEAN has received praises and disdain from institutional scholars. It is heralded as the only regionalism in Southeast Asia able to manage regional order through its normative power, but also criticized for the same power. ASEAN once again faces a challenge with the looming of Myanmar crisis. The research aimed to find out whether ASEAN Centrality, the primacy of ASEAN in addressing regional issues, is still strong enough amidst the crisis. The research provided an analysis on ASEAN Centrality by adopting an individual-state leadership concept portrayed by Indonesia as a de facto leader of ASEAN. The research methods employed qualitative explorative research by focusing on comparative case studies on the Preah Vihear and Myanmar cases. The research finds that in both cases, ASEAN Centrality prevails. However, its strength varies as Indonesia's leadership depends on mutually inclusive variables. These determining variables are institutional mandates, the domestic interest of followers, and external pressures.

Geo-ekonomi: Dampak Terbentuknya Pakta Trilateral AUKUS terhadap ASEAN

Regional tensions strongly influence international economic and political relations in a strategic environment. The development of the current geo-economic view shows a mixture of economic and security interests that has begun to blur the separation. The emergence of the AUKUS trilateral pact consisting of Australia, Britain and the United States has further increased tensions in the Indo-Pacific region, especially with China. This study aims to examine the impact of AUKUS on ASEAN, in terms of the geo-economics that have changed at this time. This study was prepared using qualitative research methods through literature study. ASEAN centrality has not been able to face this challenge as a counterbalance so that each member country provides a variety of responses. The challenges ahead are much more difficult because the changing world order with the competition between America and China has shifted closer to their home, in the strategic Indo-Pacific region.

Different Shades of Norms: Comparing the Approaches of the EU and ASEAN to Cyber Governance

ABSTRACT In order to better capture the dynamics of global cyber governance, it is important to go beyond the established West vs. non-West dichotomy in the scholarly literature and thus develop a more nuanced understanding of the variations of cyber governance norms and approaches within and beyond the traditional Western camp, as well as to take into account the role of regional organisations in reshaping the normative framework of cyber governance. Indeed, the European Union is emerging as a new norm entrepreneur and autonomous regional actor in cyber governance by proactively projecting its regulatory and normative power in the digital sphere. In contrast, the development of ASEAN’s cyber governance norms is a process of norm subsidiarity based on ASEAN’s unique diplomatic culture and normative structure characterised by the ASEAN Way and the principle of ASEAN centrality.

FROM INDO-PACIFIC CENTRALITY TO STRATEGIC AUTONOMY: ASEAN – US PERSPECTIVE

Indo-Pacific is indeed a versatile region with vast geoeconomic and geopolitical advantages and potentials, with ASEAN at its center. Strategic engagement of countries whether to bandwagon or balance major power’s rivalries are pretty much a pertinent deliberation for the last and next decades to come as the global shifting is now moving towards the Indo-Pacific region. This paper employs qualitative analysis to answer the main contentions of: (1) how minilateralism affects Indo-Pacific, and what ASEAN-US role can be explored; and (2) does ASEAN-US matter and how it could actively find convergences in navigating forward in the rules-based region. The author suggests that looking west and being concerned the east or the other way around can be a sufficient strategy in constructing ASEAN-US engagement amid the rising minilateral groupings and concerns against the “crippled” ASEAN centrality since AUKUS and the recent developments in the region.