{"title":"The “Indo-Pacific” Order: A Southeast Asian Perspective","authors":"M.L. Pinitbhand Paribatra","doi":"10.1111/aspp.70031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.70031","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>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.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":44747,"journal":{"name":"Asian Politics & Policy","volume":"17 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144515100","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review of From Development to Democracy: The Transformations of Modern Asia","authors":"William J. Jones","doi":"10.1111/aspp.70024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.70024","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44747,"journal":{"name":"Asian Politics & Policy","volume":"17 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144515099","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Ignacio Vicuña Betancourt, Juan Pablo Sims, Brice Tseen Fu Lee, Yun-Tso Lee
{"title":"Beyond Economics: Political Identity and the Future of Cross-Strait Relations","authors":"Ignacio Vicuña Betancourt, Juan Pablo Sims, Brice Tseen Fu Lee, Yun-Tso Lee","doi":"10.1111/aspp.70027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.70027","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This paper explores the intricate dynamics of cross-Strait relations between the People's Republic of China (PRC) and Taiwan, focusing on the interplay of political cooperation, national identity, and economic interdependence in the unification process. Through content analysis and Key Word in Context (KWIC) methodologies, it examines political discourse from Taiwan's presidential speeches (1996–2023), China's White Papers (1993, 2000, and 2022), and Chinese Communist Party National Congress Reports (1997–2022). The findings reveal that although economic interdependence stabilizes cross-Strait relations, it cannot resolve the challenges of conflicting identities and limited political cooperation. Taiwan's growing emphasis on autonomy contrasts with China's sovereignty claims and unification strategies, complicated further by US geopolitical influence. The study concludes that without a shared political and identity framework, economic ties alone cannot achieve unification, challenging integration theories such as neofunctionalism. This highlights identity and cooperation as critical obstacles in cross-Strait relations.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":44747,"journal":{"name":"Asian Politics & Policy","volume":"17 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144515101","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Decolonizing Environmental Politics: Relationality and Cosmopraxis in the Sundarbans Region, Bangladesh","authors":"Abhishek Choudhary","doi":"10.1111/aspp.70021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.70021","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The paper seeks to bridge the gap between environmental policy formulation and actual practices of the Sundarbans region in Bangladesh through a metatheoretical intervention within a decolonial framework. <i>Ontologically</i>, it foregrounds relationality and examines the implication of such ontological position. <i>Epistemologically</i>, the paper advocates standpoint epistemologies. With an effort to decolonize environmental governance, the paper specifically focusses on the epistemic erasures of traditional resource users in the Sundarbans. It engages with the ways in which specific communities engage with the mangrove forest ecosystem. <i>Methodologically</i>, the paper borrows the framework of Hybrid/Plural Climate Studies and Cosmopraxis. Cosmopraxis has the potential of countering epistemic erasures done by modernity and colonization of the lifeworld. <i>Empirically</i>, the paper examines the case of select communities in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh where their reciprocal and relational engagement with the nature goes beyond spirituality and shows an implicit presence of cosmopraxis.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":44747,"journal":{"name":"Asian Politics & Policy","volume":"17 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144515104","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Private Revolutions: Four Women Face China's New Social Order, By \u0000 , Yuan Yang, Norfolk, US: Viking, 2024. 304 pp. $30. ISBN: 978-0-593-49390-8.","authors":"Doris Anderson","doi":"10.1111/aspp.70030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/aspp.70030","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44747,"journal":{"name":"Asian Politics & Policy","volume":"17 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144515098","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}