The “Indo-Pacific” Order: A Southeast Asian Perspective

Abstract

Situated in the literature on “Global IR” and how smaller states navigate the great power rivalries, this article examines Southeast Asia's engagement with emerging international orders, particularly within the “Indo-Pacific” framework, and explores how structural constraints interact with agency. Based on qualitative documentary research analyzing selected scholarship from academics based in the region, this paper identifies two key contributions to the Southeast Asian scholarship in Global IR. First, the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) exemplifies the region's ability to incorporate a normative identity with pragmatic engagement; hereby, highlighting the region's methods for constructing agency through both material and ideational factors. Second, the AOIP acknowledges the region's position within a fluid international system, where weaker states may leverage structural advantages and utilize individual and institutional mechanisms to maneuver regional and global orders.