International Relations of the Asia-Pacific Advance Access originally published online on October 28, 2008
International Relations of the Asia-Pacific 2009 9(1):157-196; doi:10.1093/irap/lcn017
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This article appears in the following International Relations of the Asia-Pacific issue: SPECIAL ISSUE: Teaching international relations in Southeast Asia [View the issue table of contents]
The balance of great-power influence in contemporary Southeast Asia
Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-6010, USA
Email: ciorciari{at}gmail.com
This article reviews and critiques recent scholarly work on Southeast Asian relations with the great powers, examining the strategies that ASEAN governments have used and the effects of those strategies. The author argues that Southeast Asian governments have generally steered away from traditional balance of power politics to promote a more complex ‘balance of influence’ comprising military, economic, institutional, and ideational dimensions. A key feature of this balance of influence strategy has been its inclusiveness. Southeast Asian governments have invited competing great powers to participate in the region's economic and diplomatic affairs so that they develop stakes in the region's peace and prosperity. The author contends that Southeast Asian efforts have been relatively successful to date, contributing to a multi-dimensional balance that is relatively resilient and places significant constraints on any external power's ability to exercise unwanted dominance in the region.
Received for publication August 4, 2008. Accepted for publication September 24, 2008.