Emerging U.S. Security Partnerships in Southeast Asia

Start Date/Time: 
Thursday, December 3, 2015 - 12:00
End Date/Time: 
Thursday, December 3, 2015 - 13:30
Description: 

AFSA hosts a team of researchers from the University of Sydney's United States Studies Centre; they will present their new project, "Emerging U.S. Security Partnerships in Southeast Asia." The presenters are Dr. Bates Gill, Dr. Evelyn Goh and Dr. Chin-Hao Huang. Click here to RSVP.

Southeast Asia is being shaped by a careful calibration of foreign policy to balance the strong interest to have a constructive relationship with China overall, not least in economic terms, and concerns about its growing power and assertion of interests in the security sphere. Equally, this challenge is being felt in the United States, both in bilateral relations with China and in managing American security partnerships in Asia.

As part of the U.S. “rebalancing” strategy toward the Asia-Pacific, Washington’s policies to engage its existing and potential partners in Asia—diplomatically, economically, and on security issues—will likely intensify in the coming years, and with it, the expectation of allies and friends to bear a greater share of responsibility for regional security. At the same time, China’s importance in Asia will also likely increase.

It is therefore critical to understand how Southeast Asia and the United States will respond to the challenges and uncertainties that are dominating the strategic landscape in the region. Compared to the U.S.’s traditional partners in Asia, especially in the northeast such as South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, South East Asia has attracted relatively less investigation.

The U.S. Studies Centre will focus on Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia as particularly interesting case studies:

  • all have longstanding and complex relations with the U.S. and China;
  • each have recently reopened more positive relations with the U.S.;
  • all have intensive trade and diplomatic relations with China;
  • all have past or current territorial disputes with China; and
  • all continue to experience tensions along their common land or maritime borders with China.

The U.S. Studies Centre will engage international and local experts, convene in-country workshops, conduct interviews, and publish research to fill the gap in understanding the “Emerging U.S. Security Partnerships in Southeast Asia.” This project will run over the course of two years (2014-2016) and is generously supported by the MacArthur Foundation.

Note that this is NOT an AFSA-sponsored event; AFSA is simply providing a venue for these researchers to engage with foreign affairs practitioners and members of the U.S. Foreign Service and present their findings.