With the end of the Cold War, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) emerged as the fulcrum around which Indo-Pacific’s economic, political and diplomatic interactions took shape. Its emergence as the node of Indo-Pacific’s regional integration, however, depended upon three factors: the peaceful rise of China as the region’s economic torchbearer; the continued American commitment to the region’s security and stability; and a shared Sino-American understanding on avoidance of any direct conflict between the two major powers in the region. However, in the last decade, all these assumptions have become problematic. For one, China’s economic rise has fueled its military and territorial assertiveness, most evident in its unilateral imposition of its maritime claims in the South China Sea. America’s relative decline and its growing domestic polarisation, on the other hand, have raised questions over its commitment to the region’s security and stability. However, what is most disturbing for ASEAN is the ongoing transition of power in the region and the threat of hegemonic wars between a rising China claiming primacy and a declining hegemon bent at preserving the status quo. China’s rise has also stoked apprehensions in the minds of the region’s other major powers such as India and Japan which are now actively collaborating with the United States (US) to arrest China’s territorial assertiveness and diplomatic coercion. The emergence of the Quad as a new security institution in the region has grave consequences for ASEAN’s otherwise central role in the region’s geopolitics. Though both Japan and India constantly reaffirm ASEAN’s central role in shaping the region’s future, ASEAN’s divided loyalties between China and the US, its allies and partners have also made them question its commitment to the rule of law and its ability and sincerity in addressing the issues stoked by China’s aggressive intent and actions.
How do the Quad states perceive ASEAN’s evolving role in managing the fallout of China’s rise, America’s decline and the ensuing contest of power and resolve between the major powers in the region? How can ASEAN ensure a stable Indo-Pacific when it is deeply embedded in the Chinese economy on one the hand, and American security commitments on the other? How does ASEAN perceive the emergence of the Quad as a new security institution in the region? What are the complementarities and contradictions between the Quad and ASEAN?
The panel discussion will focus on the interaction between the Quad and ASEAN as two regional institutions in the Indo-Pacific and how their interaction can provide a meaningful way forward to address some of the pressing questions of economic interdependence, maritime stability and rule of law in the region.
*English-only. Please register to join the meeting.
You can watch our previous discussions:
Click
here for "Post-Election US Policy Toward the Indo-Pacific: Expectations and Concerns" (November 2020)
Click
here for "Institutionalising the Quad: Can it Seize the Momentum for the Future?" (January 2021)
