ASEAN and Regional Actors in the Indo-Pacific

Contents
Edtiors and Contributors
List of Figures
List of Tables
Part I Navigating Power Shifts
1 Pressing Challenges to New Relevance of the Indo-Pacific: Significance, Continuity, and Connectivity
	Introduction
	The Rise of China: Challenging the Liberal International Order
	Free and Open Indo-Pacific: Forging a Values-Based Order in the Indo-Pacific
	The Indo-Pacific Concept: Significance
	The Indo-Pacific Concept: Continuity
	The Indo-Pacific Concept: Connectivity
	Conclusion: Views Exchanged Across the Chapters
	References
2 Complex Positioning: Thailand’s Role in the Context of ASEAN “Centrality” and Indo-Pacific Security
	Introduction
	Understanding Thai Foreign Policy
		Pluralism
		Realism
		Thai State Interests and “Complex Engagement”
	Thai Foreign Policy and ASEAN Centrality
	Thai Foreign Policy and Indo-Pacific Security
	Conclusion
	References
3 Japan’s Indo-Pacific Strategy and ASEAN: Collaboration or Containment?
	Introduction
	The Rise of China and Japan’s Strategic Response
	Japan’s Approach to India in 2007: Forging the Quad
	Japan is Back: Building up a Strategic Japan
	Japan’s FOIP Strategy in 2016: Collaboration or Containment?
	ASEAN’s Response: AOIP 2019
	Synthesizing FOIP and AOIP: Can Japan and ASEAN Work Together?
	Conclusion
	References
4 Look East to Act East: India’s Commitment to ASEAN and the China Conundrum
	India and Southeast Asia Before the Cold War
	India’s Diplomatic Stand of 1981 Cambodia Issues: ASEAN’s View
	India and ASEAN in the Post-Cold War Phase
		The Significance of India’s Look East Policy
	The Shift from Look East to Act East
	China Factor in Southeast Asia: Opportunities and Challenges for India
	References
5 Role of ASEAN Centrality in India’s Indo-Pacific Strategy: Prospects and Challenges
	Introduction
	Outlook of Indo-Pacific
	Essence of ASEAN Centrality in Indo-Pacific
	India’s Indo-Pacific Strategy
	Role of ASEAN Centrality in India’s Indo-Pacific Strategy
	Conclusion
	References
6 Pax Indo-Pacifica in the Sino-US Ice Age: Geopolitical Anxiety and America’s Struggle for Global Supremacy
	Discursive Anxiety and Anxious Power
	The Trump Doctrine and Indo-Pacific Strategy
	The Biden Doctrine: Change or Continuity?
	The Sino-US Ice Age: An Emerging Bipolar International Order
	Conclusion: Playing with Fire in the Indo-Pacific Century?
	References
Part II Anxieties, Choices, and Relations
7 Alignment Choices in an Era of US-China Competition: Navigating a Taiwan Contingency and Trade Relationships
	Introduction
	Intensifying Competition: The End of Engagement
	Taiwan: East Asia’s Powder Keg
		Fear of War Across the Taiwan Strait
		Regional Responses to a Taiwan Contingency
	Trade: Wealth and Power
		Deepening Economic Ties
		Chinese Economic Coercion
	Conclusion: Anxieties and Choices
	References
8 “Kamikaze” Syndrome from Russia to China to Myanmar: Fake History in a Post-truth Era Crushes Democracy and Ignites a War
	The Return of History
	Why Did Legacy Powers Crush Democracy?
	“Kamikaze\" Syndrome?
	Is Putin Today’s Peter the Great?
	Remember Tiananmen Square
	The World Condoned China’s Repression for Decades
	The Rise and Fall of the Japanese Model: A New Chinese Digital Dream
	The Holy Grail: The 2008 Constitution
	The World Should Demand: “Free Aung San Suu Kyi!”
	Why Does “Kamikaze” Syndrome Occur?
	References
9 Reviving Ancient Bonds: The Significance of Southeast Asia for Hindu Nationalists
	Introduction
	Putting “Indo” in “Indochina”. A Summary of the Past Influences of the Indian Civilization on Southeast Asia
	“Ancient Bonds of Blood and Culture”: Significance of Indian Connections to Southeast Asia for Hindu Nationalists
	Restoring Old Bridges. What Activities Is the Current BJP Government Undertaking to Revive and Highlight These Connections?
	Summary
	References
10 Energy Transition in Thailand and Southeast Asia Through China’s Energy Diplomacy
	Introduction
	Landscape of Energy Transition in Thailand and Southeast Asia
	China Rise for Energy Transition
	Harnessing “Green Development”
	China-ASEAN: Partnership Toward Energy Transition?
	Green Lancang-Mekong Initiative
	Thailand Energy Transition Through China’s Energy Diplomacy
	Thailand’s Possibility, Challenges, and a Path Forward
	Conclusion
	References
11 Coup-Prone Myanmar and Thailand: Democratic Subjects and Unbound Serialities
	Democracy and Anti-Democracy
	Myanmar and Thailand: Authoritarian Democracy or Democratic Authoritarianism?
	Democracy and Subjectification
	References
12 Japan–Myanmar Relations: A Quarter-Century of Risk Mitigation, Management, and Consolidation
	Myanmar: Japan’s Risky Regional Priority
		Military Authoritarianism … Again
		Japan–Myanmar: A History of Risky Relations
		Japan’s “Myanmar Dilemma”
		Objective and Outline
	Risk, International Relations, and Public Policy
		Risk as Reality, Construction, or Control Technique?
		Risk and Policy Studies
		Japan and Risk
	Risk Mitigation in Japan–Myanmar Relations
		Risk Number One: Past Regimes, New Regimes
		Risk Number Two: International Condemnation and Isolation
		Risk Number Three: Excessive Focus on Politics
	Risk Management in Japan–Myanmar Relations
		Risk Number Four: Myanmar’s International Pariah Status
		Risk Number Five: Lack of Reform
		Risk Number Six: Myanmar’s National Reconciliation Problem
	Risk Consolidation in Japan–Myanmar Relations
		Risk Number Seven: China
		Risk Number Eight: Lack of Integration
		Risk Number Nine: The Military and “Rollback”
	Conclusion
13 Friends Distant yet Near: Relations Between Myanmar and Russia, 1917—2022
	The Historical Context of Russia-Myanmar Ties
	Diplomacy and Aid During the U Nu and Ne Win Periods (1951–1988)
	Myanmar, Russia, and China, 1988–2021
	The February 2021 Coup d’état: Deepening Myanmar-Russia Ties
	Conclusions
	Appendix
	References
14 Japan’s Relations with ASEAN Post-COVID-19: Navigating the New Cold War
	Introduction
	The Emerging Second Cold War: A Constructivist View of the Emerging Power Balance in the Asia–Pacific
	ASEAN-Japan Relations During the First Cold War
	The Emerging New Cold War
	Japan—ASEAN Relations in the Emerging New Cold War
	Japan—ASEAN Relations and the New Cold War Dynamic
	Conclusion
	References
Index