ASEAN Outlook on The Indo-Pacific: Politics and Security Challenges on The Indo-Pacific Dynamics (original) (raw)

It is not every day that we get to see a region being born, or in the Indo-Pacific’s case, perhaps, reborn. And yet, that is precisely what we appear to be witnessing as a consequence of the growing interest in, and even importance of, the ‘Indo-Pacific’ as a focus of scholarly and policy-making attention. At the outset, however, it needs to be recognised that regions are ultimately socially constructed and dependent on processes of recognition, identification and membership that make their exact contours contests and potentially fluid. True, some regions are inherently more likely than others, but they require embedding in social and institutional reality if they are ever to amount to anything more than ‘visionary’ statements, no matter how well intentioned, timely or even functionally necessary such ideas may seem. In this context, processes of regionalism, or the intentional efforts of state-based policymakers to create new cross-border relationships, rationales and responsibilities, are potentially important and illustrative of different dynamics at work in the international system. This is what makes the Indo-Pacific such an interesting case study, of course. ASEAN seeks to manage its relationships with great powers by championing the principles of inclusiveness and neutrality (and maximizing its diplomatic leverage through protecting its privilege to define what these terms mean.) If ASEAN is seen to support the Free and Open Indo-Pacific concept, its cover of inclusiveness and neutrality will be blown.