Beyond hedging: Asean could help bridge differences between China and US

FOREIGN policy thinkers have compared the governments of today’s South-east Asian nations to the rulers of the Italian city-states in the age of Niccolo Machiavelli – small but pragmatic international players that have embraced a realpolitik strategy aimed at protecting their interests in a system dominated by the struggle between great global powers.

More specifically, the conventional wisdom is that the governments represented in the Association of South-east Asian Nations (Asean) have pursued national security policies that political scientists and economists describe as “hedging”. Hedging involves a mix of cooperative and confrontational elements that amounts to an insurance-seeking behaviour when operating in a high-risk situation: A small state avoids taking sides and pursues opposite measures vis-a-vis competing great powers, allowing them to minimise risks and maximise benefits, and providing them with a fall-back position that secures their survival.

In the current strategic environment in the Asia-Pacific dominated by rising tensions between a rising regional power – China, that is seeking to expand its economic and military power, and an outside power – the United States – that is resisting these Chinese policies, countries like Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines or Vietnam feel that these 2 global behemoths are trying to pull them in opposite directions and pressing them to take sides.