ASEAN and the Contemporary Geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific Region: Agenda for Future Research

Abstract

In June 2019, ASEAN adopted a document known as the ‘ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.’ The document provided guidelines of how ASEAN will be relevant amid the great power politics in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and how ASEAN will continue its vision of ASEAN centrality in the conduct of international relations in Southeast Asia. This article provides the foundational basis of possible research agendas related to the Indo-Pacific Region and its correlation to the regional norms of ASEAN. It concludes that several questions that have arisen in relation to the Indo-Pacific region and ASEAN includes, but not limited to; (1) what contemporary dynamics have occurred in the Indo-Pacific region? and (2) how is ASEAN still relevant in the context of the Indo-Pacific region?