Indo-Pacific and ASEAN

This book examines Indo-Pacific issues from a Southeast Asian perspective and goes beyond discourses such as ASEAN-China or ASEAN-US-China. It analyses the new regional balances in the ASEAN and Indo-Pacific region at the diplomatic, strategic and economic levels while taking into account the ongoing uncertainty of the international order, reshaped by the post COVID-19 crisis and characterised by the increasingly adversarial China-US relations, the sensitive context of South China Sea and Taiwan crisis and the impact of the war between Russia and Ukraine. It highlights Indo-Pacific not only from a geostrategic angle but an economic one, considering ASEAN amidst competing connectivity strategies and integration challenges. The book offers an inclusive outlook capturing diversity and convergence of strategies in a key region where the stage of tomorrow's global order will be decided. It will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics and international relations and Area Studies, especially Southeast-Asian Studies and Indo-Pacific Studies.

Claire Thi Liên Tran is Historian of Contemporary Vietnam and Associate Professor at Université Paris Cité and Researcher at Cessma (Centre d'études en sciences sociales sur les mondes africains, américains et asiatiques). Suthiphand Chirathivat is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Chulalongkorn University and co-executive editor of the Journal of Asian Economic Integration. He was the former Executive Director of ASEAN Studies Center and Chairman of Chula Global Network, Dean at the Faculty of Economics and Chairman of the Center for International Economics. Prabir De is Professor at Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), New Delhi, India.

1. Introduction PART I THE INDO-PACIFIC FROM SOUTHEAST ASIAN PERSPECTIVES: CENTRALITY AND MULTILATERALISM IN UNCERTAIN TIMES 2. Positioning ASEAN in a Multipolar Indo-Pacific 3. To Win Without Making Others Lose": Understanding Indonesia's Approach towards Indo-Pacific Discourse 4. ASEAN and the Indo-Pacific: A Strategic New Equilibrium for Thailand 5. Vietnam's Perspective on the Indo-Pacific 6. An Evolving Indo-Pacific Concept: A Cambodian Perspective 7. Myanmar's Perspective on the Indo-Pacific PART II GEOPOLITICS IN THE INDO-PACIFIC: THE INTERSECTING INTERESTS OF OTHER MAJOR POWERS 8. Divide and Rule: China's Responses to the Various Indo-Pacific Initiatives and Its Changing Relations with the ASEAN 9. Where 'Act East' Meets Indo-Pacific: Mapping India's Eastward Engagement: Rahul Mishra 10. Japan and the Indo-Pacific: Forging a Region 11. US Strategy toward the Indo-Pacific: Is the United States Back? 12. Russia's Foreign Policy Objectives and the Outlook on the Indo-Pacific 13. France within the European Rediscovery of the Indo-Pacific PART III ASEAN AMIDST COMPETING CONNECTIVITY STRATEGIES AND INTEGRATION CHALLENGES 14. Digital Connectivity in ASEAN: Opportunities and Challenges 15. India, ASEAN and the Quad: Economic Imperatives of the Indo-Pacific 16. ASEAN's Perspectives in Asia-Africa Growth Corridor Partnership in the Indo-Pacific Realm 17. Looking Ahead: Shifts in Global Geopolitical Trends 2030 - A Foresight Exercise 18. Between the Two Seas of Indo-Pacific: From Kra Isthmus to Thai Canal and Landbridge in Southern Thailand