Please don’t make us choose : understanding the applicability of hedging to Southeast Asia

• Main Authors: Chok, Clement, Wong, Benjamin Xin Jie
• Other Authors: Kei Koga
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Social sciences::Political science::International relations
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/139257
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Amidst the intensification of US-China rivalry, the small and medium sized states of Southeast Asia were often forced to take sides between two competing spheres of influence. In this view, Southeast Asian states are known to hedge vis-à-vis China and the US. Nonetheless, existing literature on hedging exhibited limitations such as the tendency to form generalisations while disregarding the complexity and diversity of Southeast Asian states. There is likewise a need to continuously evaluate the effectiveness and durability of conceptual frameworks to account for the strategic behaviour of Southeast Asian states. This paper will comprehensively assess the relevance of hedging as a conceptual framework to accurately account for the strategic behaviour of Southeast Asian states vis-à-vis the US and China. To this end, the paper argues that the conceptual framework of hedging is limited in accounting for the strategic behaviour of Southeast Asian states vis-à-vis the US and China as it was only demonstrated by Southeast Asian states when these states perceived China to be of a moderate level threat to their national interests. Rather than confining themselves to the pursuit of hedging, Southeast Asian states maintained strategic flexibility in adjusting their strategic behaviour in response to their respective threat perception of the prevailing geopolitical circumstances.