Southeast Asian Perspectives on South Korea’s Middle Power Engagement Initiatives

Asian Survey ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 555-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Teo ◽  
Bhubhindar Singh ◽  
See Seng Tan
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Capacity Building ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Middle Power ◽  
Power Role

Perspectives from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam show that South Korea’s middle power role in Southeast Asia is confined to economics and capacity building. Despite being absent from Southeast Asia’s geostrategic calculus, Korea’s non-revisionist inclination is seen to be advantageous in its pursuit of enhanced middle power status.

The Countries of Southeast Asia and the Chinese Initiative Belt and Road: a Model of Interaction

2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (10) ◽  
pp. 91-102
Author(s):  
N. Rogozhina
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Belt And Road Initiative ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
Belt And Road ◽  
The Belt And Road ◽  
Southeast Asian Countries

The choice of the countries of Southeast Asia as an example for analyzing the nature of interaction between developing countries and China within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative is not accidental. The very logic of China’s stated goals of gaining dominant positions in the world economy and politics makes it inevitable that the countries of Southeast Asia located in geographic proximity to it are included in its long-term economic and political plans. The question, however, is to what extent do they meet the interests of the Southeast Asian countries themselves? The solution to this question is the main subject of research in the article. There are objective prerequisites for mutually beneficial cooperation. The Belt and Road projects are viewed by China as a tool for economic expansion into the region with the prospect of taking a leading position there, using the interest of Southeast Asian countries in the inflow of foreign investment to create modern infrastructure, the lack of which narrows their opportunities for further economic growth, maintaining competitiveness and developing integration ties within ASEAN Community. Expert assessments made by international organizations confirm the positive impact of OBOR projects on the economic development of Southeast Asian countries and although today it is too early to draw any conclusions, since the initiative is only at the initial stage of its implementation in the region, nevertheless the case studies presented in the article indicate a mismatch in the positions of the parties on a number of issues related to the financing of projects, their lack of transparency. non-compliance with environmental and social requirements. The support of the initiative on the part of the Southeast Asian countries does not automatically mean their acceptance of the terms of the agreements proposed by China, which are far from always consistent with their national interests and give rise to fears in society about its expansionist intentions. Therefore, in many Southeast Asian countries, participation in OBOR projects is turning into a subject of political discourse, which reflects the presence of disagreements in society and confrontation of interests regarding the advisability of rapprochement with China, given the associated economic and political risks. The countries of Southeast Asia can be conditionally divided into two groups according to their relation to the Belt and Road initiative. The first group includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar, whose position can be described as national pragmatism. While supporting the Chinese initiative in general, they nevertheless assess the possible risks of their participation in projects and seek to reduce them. The second group is represented by Laos and Cambodia, whose leadership unconditionally supports the Chinese initiative, guided by the interests of their own survival, which largely depends on Chinese assistance. Therefore, the prospect of falling into a debt trap and increasing economic dependence on the PRC and even the threat of losing sovereignty does not deter them from participating in highly controversial projects from a commercial point of view. Based on the analysis made, the author comes to the conclusion that, given the existing alignment of political forces in Southeast Asia, China can count on promoting its initiative in the region, which, however, does not automatically lead to an increase in its political influence and to the creation of a China-centric model of regional order. Acknowledgements. The article was prepared within the project “Post-crisis world order: challenges and technologies, competition and cooperation” supported by the grant from Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation program for research projects in priority areas of scientific and technological development (agreement № 075-15-2020-783).

Southeast Asian Defense Treaty

1954 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 611-613
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Southwest Pacific ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Collective Defense

On September 8, 1954, representatives of the United States, United Kingdom, France, the Philippines, Thailand, Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand signed the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty, a protocol designating the areas to which the treaty was to apply, and the Pacific Charter, a declaration setting forth the aims of the eight countries in southeast Asia and the southwest Pacific. Negotiations leading up to the actual signature of the treaty had been underway throughout the summer of 1954 and had culminated in an eight-power conference in Manila which opened on September 6.

Southeast Asian Americans

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chia Youyee Vang
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Asian Americans ◽  
Asian American ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Southeast Asian Americans ◽  
Socialist Republic ◽  
Brunei Darussalam

In geopolitical terms, the Asian sub-region Southeast Asia consists of ten countries that are organized under the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Current member nations include Brunei Darussalam, Kingdom of Cambodia, Republic of Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos), Malaysia, Republic of the Union of Myanmar (formerly Burma), Republic of the Philippines, Singapore, Kingdom of Thailand, and Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The term Southeast Asian Americans has been shaped largely by the flow of refugees from the American War in Vietnam’ however, Americans with origins in Southeast Asia have much more diverse migration and settlement experiences that are intricately tied to the complex histories of colonialism, imperialism, and war from the late 19th through the end of the 20th century. A commonality across Southeast Asian American groups today is that their immigration history resulted primarily from the political and military involvement of the United States in the region, aimed at building the United States as a global power. From Filipinos during the Spanish-American War in 1898 to Vietnamese, Cambodian, Lao, and Hmong refugees from the American War in Vietnam, military interventions generated migration flows that, once begun, became difficult to stop. Complicating this history is its role in supporting the international humanitarian apparatus by creating the possibility for displaced people to seek refuge in the United States. Additionally, the relationships between the United States, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore are different from those of other SEA countries involved in the Vietnam War. Consequently, today’s Southeast Asian Americans are heterogeneous with varying levels of acculturation to U.S. society.

Southeast Asia: A Very Short Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. Rush
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
East Timor ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
World Region

The eleven countries of Southeast Asia are diverse in every way, from the ethnicities and religions of their residents to their political systems and levels of prosperity. These nations—Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Brunei, and East Timor—are each unique, yet shared traditions mean that each country is also typically Southeast Asian. Southeast Asia: A Very Short Introduction traces the region’s history from the earliest “mandala” kingdoms to the colonial era and the present day. Synthesizing the ideas of leading scholars, it provides an analysis of contemporary Southeast Asia that accommodates its bewildering ethnic, religious, and political complexities while exposing the underlying patterns that make it a unified world region.

scholarly journals Women and Terrorism: A Sketch on Women and Transnational Terrorism in Southeast Asia and Indonesia

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-66
Author(s):  
Herdi Sahrasad ◽  
Dedy Tabrani ◽  
Muhammad Ridwan ◽  
Al Chaidar
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Asian Women ◽  
Transnational Terrorism ◽  
Terrorist Organizations ◽  
Asian Region

In Southeast Asia, many women in radical groups have extreme views and they are ready to join Jihadist movement to support her husband's actions as Jihad fi sabilillah.  In this context, experience in Southeast Asia shows the increasing involvement of women in terrorism by reason of following the husband's jihad to fight thogut regimes in the region. Meanwhile, there are a large number of Islamic terrorist organizations involving active women throughout the Southeast Asian region, from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore to the Philippines.  In this regard, the emergence of ISIS has strengthened and institutionalized acts of terror and violence by Southeast Asian women following the ISIS declaration to establish a regional khilafah (Caliphate). 

scholarly journals SOUTHEAST ASIA: HISTORY, MODERNITY, AND RELIGIOUS CHANGE

Al-Albab ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sumanto Al Qurtuby
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Religious Change ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Cultural Legacies ◽  
State Organization ◽  
A Site

Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia, with more than six hundred million populations, is home to millions of Buddhists, Muslims, Confucians, Protestants, Catholics, and now Pentecostals, as well as many followers of local religions and spiritual beliefs. Notwithstanding its great historical, political, cultural legacies, however, the region has long been neglected as a site for religious studies in the Western academia. Aiming at filling the gap in Asian and religious studies as well as exploring the richness of Southeast Asian cultures, this article discusses the dynamics, diversity, and complexity of Southeast Asian societies in their response to the region’s richly political, cultural, and religious traditions spanning from pre-modern era to modern one. The article also examines the “integrative revolutions” that shaped and reshaped warfare, state organization and economics of Southeast Asia, particularly in the pre-European colonial era. In addition, the work discusses the wave of Islamization, particularly since the nineteenth century, as well as the upsurge of religious resurgence that shift the nature of religiosity and the formation of religious groupings in the area. The advent of Islam, with some interventions of political regimes, had been an important cause for the decline of Hindu-Buddhist traditions in some areas of Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia, the coming of Pentecostalism has challenged the well-established mainstream Protestantism and Catholicism, especially in Indonesia and the Philippines. Keywords: history, modernity, religious change, Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia and the United States

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenton Clymer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Raw Materials ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Asian Countries ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asian Countries

The U.S. relationship with Southeast Asia has always reflected the state of U.S. interactions with the three major powers that surround the region: Japan, China, and, to a lesser extent, India. Initially, Americans looked at Southeast Asia as an avenue to the rich markets that China and India seemed to offer, while also finding trading opportunities in the region itself. Later, American missionaries sought to save Southeast Asian souls, while U.S. officials often viewed Southeast Asia as a region that could tip the overall balance of power in East Asia if its enormous resources fell under the control of a hostile power. American interest expanded enormously with the annexation of the Philippines in 1899, an outgrowth of the Spanish-American War. That acquisition resulted in a nearly half-century of American colonial rule, while American investors increased their involvement in exploiting the region’s raw materials, notably tin, rubber, and petroleum, and missionaries expanded into areas previously closed to them. American occupation of the Philippines heightened tensions with Japan, which sought the resources of Southeast Asia, particularly in French Indochina, Malaya, and the Dutch East Indies (today’s Indonesia). Eventually, clashing ambitions and perceptions brought the United States into World War II. Peeling those territories away from Japan during the war was a key American objective. Americans resisted the Japanese in the Philippines and in Burma, but after Japan quickly subdued Southeast Asia, there was little contact in the region until the reconquest began in 1944. American forces participated in the liberation of Burma and also fought in the Dutch Indies and the Philippines before the war ended in 1945. After the war, the United States had to face the independence struggles in several Southeast Asian countries, even as the Grand Alliance fell apart and the Cold War emerged, which for the next several decades overshadowed almost everything. American efforts to prevent communist expansion in the region inhibited American support for decolonization and led to war in Vietnam and Laos and covert interventions elsewhere. With the end of the Cold War in 1991, relations with most of Southeast Asia have generally been normal, except for Burma/Myanmar, where a brutal military junta ruled. The opposition, led by the charismatic Aung San Suu Kyi, found support in the United States. More recently American concerns with China’s new assertiveness, particularly in the South China Sea, have resulted in even closer U.S. relations with Southeast Asian countries.

scholarly journals Book Reviews

2002 ◽  
Vol 158 (3) ◽  
pp. 535-592
Author(s):  
Redactie KITLV
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Kuala Lumpur ◽  
Asian Studies ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
Southeast Asian Studies ◽  
History Of ◽  
Oxford University Press

-Martin Baier, Han Knapen, Forests of fortune?; The environmental history of Southeast Borneo, 1600-1880. Leiden: The KITLV Press, 2001, xiv + 487 pp. [Verhandelingen 189] -Jean-Pascal Bassino, Per Ronnas ,Entrepreneurship in Vietnam; Transformations and dynamics. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) and Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2001, xii + 354 pp., Bhargavi Ramamurty (eds) -Adriaan Bedner, Renske Biezeveld, Between individualism and mutual help; Social security and natural resources in a Minangkabau village. Delft: Eburon, 2001, xi + 307 pp. -Linda Rae Bennett, Alison Murray, Pink fits; Sex, subcultures and discourses in the Asia-Pacific. Clayton, Victoria: Monash Asia Institute, 2001, xii + 198 pp. [Monash Papers on Southeast Asia 53.] -Peter Boomgaard, Laurence Monnais-Rousselot, Médecine et colonisation; L'aventure indochinoise 1860-1939. Paris: CNRS Editions, 1999, 489 pp. -Ian Coxhead, Yujiro Hayami ,A rice village saga; Three decades of Green revolution in the Philippines. Houndmills, Basingstoke: MacMillan, 2000, xviii + 274 pp., Masao Kikuchi (eds) -Robert Cribb, Frans Hüsken ,Violence and vengeance; Discontent and conflict in New Order Indonesia. Saarbrücken: Verlag für Entwicklungspolitik, 2002, 163 pp. [Nijmegen Studies in Development and Cultural Change 37.], Huub de Jonge (eds) -Frank Dhont, Michael Leifer, Asian nationalism. London: Routledge, 2000, x + 210 pp. -David van Duuren, Joseph Fischer ,The folk art of Bali; The narrative tradition. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1998, xx + 116 pp., Thomas Cooper (eds) -Cassandra Green, David J. Stuart-Fox, Pura Besakih; Temple, religion and society in Bali. Leiden: KITLV Press, xvii + 470 pp. [Verhandelingen 193.] -Hans Hägerdal, Vladimir I. Braginsky ,Images of Nusantara in Russian literature. Leiden: KITLV Press, 1999, xxvi + 516 pp., Elena M. Diakonova (eds) -Hans Hägerdal, David Chandler, A history of Cambodia (third edition). Boulder, Colorado: Westview, 2000, xvi + 296 pp. -Robert W. Hefner, Leo Howe, Hinduism and hierarchy in Bali. Oxford: James Currey, Santa Fe: School of American Research Press, 2001, xviii + 228 pp. -Russell Jones, Margaret Shennan, Out in the midday sun; The British in Malaya, 1880-1960. London: John Murray, 2000, xviii + 426 pp. -Russell Jones, T.N. Harper, The end of empire and the making of Malaya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, xviii + 417 pp. -Sirtjo Koolhof, Christian Pelras, The Bugis. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996, xvii + 386 pp. [The People of South-East Asia and the Pacific.] -Tania Li, Lily Zubaidah Rahim, The Singapore dilemma; The political and educational marginality of the Malay community. Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1998, xviii + 302 pp. -Yasser Mattar, Vincent J.H. Houben ,Coolie labour in colonial Indonesia; A study of labour relations in the Outer Islands, c. 1900-1940. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1999, xvi + 268 pp., J. Thomas Lindblad et al. (eds) -Yasser Mattar, Zawawi Ibrahim, The Malay labourer; By the window of capitalism. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1998, xvi + 348 PP. -Kees Mesman Schultz, Leo J.T. van der Kamp, C.L.M. Penders, The West Guinea debacle; Dutch decolonisation and Indonesia 1945-1962. Leiden: KITLV Press, 2002, viii + 490 pp. -S. Morshidi, Beng-Lan Goh, Modern dreams; An inquiry into power, cultural production, and the cityscape in contemporary urban Penang, Malaysia. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, 2002, 224 pp. [Studies on Southeast Asia 31.] -Richard Scaglion, Gert-Jan Bartstra, Bird's Head approaches; Irian Jaya studies - a programme for interdisciplinary research. Rotterdam: Balkema, 1998, ix + 275 pp. [Modern Quarternary Research in Southeast Asia 15.] -Simon C. Smith, R.S. Milne ,Malaysian politics under Mahathir. London: Routledge, 1999, xix + 225 pp., Diane K. Mauzy (eds) -Reed L. Wadley, Christine Helliwell, 'Never stand alone'; A study of Borneo sociality. Phillips, Maine: Borneo Research Council, 2001, xiv + 279 pp. [BRC Monograph Series 5.] -Nicholas J. White, Francis Loh Kok Wah ,Democracy in Malaysia; Discourses and practices. Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2002, xiii + 274 pp. [Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Democracy in Asia Series 5.], Khoo Boo Teik (eds)

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