Asian States Relationality to the integration strategies of China, Russia, and the United States

Panel Convenor(s)

• GC

  Gaye Christoffersen

  Johns Hopkins University, United States

Panel Chair(s)

• GC

  Gaye Christoffersen

  Johns Hopkins University, United States

Presenter(s)

• GC

  Gaye Christoffersen

  Johns Hopkins University, United States
• VK

  Vitaly Kosyrev

  Endicott College, United States
• PT

  Pushpa Thambipillai

  Independent Scholar, Malaysia

Co-Presenter(s)

• AH

  Amanda Huan

  Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

The panel interrogates the strategies major powers introduce to Southeast Asia, and examines how Southeast Asian states respond to them. The panel draws on diverse theoretical approaches including the Chinese School of Relationalism, Middle Power Theory, classical realism, and Constructivism. Russia has expected its role in Southeast Asia to be that of a major power with a sphere of influence, on a par with China and the United States, drawing on Realist balance of power strategies. China offers membership in the Maritime Silk Road which promises economic prosperity. The United States offers membership in the Free and Open Indo-Pacific with security assistance that promises greater security for each state. The ASEAN Way rejects major-power domination of smaller countries and gives these countries greater agency than they would have under major powers' spheres of influence. Can ASEAN states introduce a Global South consciousness and Middle Power Theory into an emerging Global IR Theory that has not fully considered its ideas? A genuine Global IR Theory project that draws on Southeast Asian views and multiple concepts from both Western and non-Western sources, extrapolating from local knowledge and generalizing to the global, could be the result.

Presentations:

• 16:15 – 18:00 (GMT+7)

  Mainland and Maritime Southeast Asia mutually constituted identities with outside major powers
  

  Presenter: Gaye Christoffersen – Johns Hopkins University
• 16:15 – 18:00 (GMT+7)

  Preliminary Assessment of U.S. Efforts to Re-engage with the Southeast Asian Region: New Connotations of the 'ASEAN Centrality' Narrative
  

  Presenter: Vitaly Kosyrev – Endicott College
• 16:15 – 18:00 (GMT+7)

  Small states in a region of bigger powers: Varied strategies of Brunei Darussalam and Singapore
  

  Presenter: Pushpa Thambipillai – Independent Scholar

  Co-Presenter: Amanda Huan – Nanyang Technological University