Southeast Asian regional governance and the domestic politics of portfolio investment liberalization: The case of Indonesia

In recent years, a number of East Central European (ECE) governments have undertaken to radically alter the territorial structures of their public administration. Some have suggested that this development represents the growing Europeanization of ECE politics, in particular the role of the European Union. This article questions that view by examining the crucial role of domestic party politics in the enactment and implementation of regional governance reform. It does so through a close comparison of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

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Great power rivalry and the agency of secondary states: a study based on China’s relations with Southeast Asian countries

International Relations of the Asia-Pacific ◽

10.1093/irap/lcaa018 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Wen Zha

Keyword(s):

Foreign Policy ◽

Domestic Politics ◽

The Philippines ◽

Southeast Asian ◽

Great Power ◽

Successful Implementation ◽

Asian Countries ◽

Predominant Role ◽

Dual Strategy ◽

Southeast Asian Countries

Abstract In recent years, many observers perceive ascendant Chinese influence in Southeast Asia. Existing research attributes China’s recent advances in the region to Beijing’s successful implementation of a dual strategy of coercion and inducement or Washington’s lack of commitments to the region. In a departure from the literature, this article emphasizes the agency of Southeast Asian states. It argues that great power competition empowers the secondary states by reducing their vulnerability, increasing available resources, and lending credibility to their threat of exists. As a result, domestic agenda plays a predominant role in determining a secondary state’s foreign policy orientation. To illustrate this proposition, the changing dynamics of China’s relations with Myanmar and the Philippines are examined closely. This article demonstrates that although the two states had realigned away from China since 2010–11, new agendas that emerged from their domestic politics in late 2016 tipped the balance in favor of China.

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Norms in practice: people-centric governance in ASEAN and ECOWAS

International Affairs ◽

10.1093/ia/iiaa013 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 96 (4) ◽

pp. 1015-1032

Author(s):

Aarie Glas ◽

Emmanuel Balogun

Keyword(s):

Civil Society ◽

Community Of Practice ◽

Southeast Asian ◽

Regional Governance ◽

West African ◽

Conflict Prevention ◽

Economic Community ◽

Regional Project ◽

Normative Foundations ◽

Regional Intervention

Abstract The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) both recently adopted and institutionalized the norm of people-centric governance. This is potentially transformative for both, signalling a reorientation away from their private and elite-led normative foundations. In practice, however, the norm is understood and enacted in different ways by officials at each organization and with radically different effects. In ASEAN, the norm is understood and enacted in a limited and defensive way. Its institutionalization has led only to selective engagement with civil society and has not altered established modes of regional governance. In ECOWAS, however, the norm is understood as a means to render the organization more inclusive of civil society groups and has transformed the regional project in important ways, shaping the logic and form of regional intervention and conflict prevention. To explore these experiences—convergence in adoption and institutionalization of a norm and variation in its practice and effect—we develop a practice theoretic framework and rely on 76 interviews with regional and state officials. We show that each organizational case is usefully conceptualized as a community of practice wherein external norms are understood and practiced in particular ways and with particular effect.

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Development Of SMEs In Myanmar In The Globalization Era

International Business & Economics Research Journal (IBER) ◽

10.19030/iber.v11i6.7016 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 11 (6) ◽

pp. 611

Author(s):

Balbir B. Bhasin ◽

Sivakumar Venkataramany

Keyword(s):

Private Sector ◽

Development Policy ◽

Southeast Asian ◽

Post Colonial ◽

Private Sector Development ◽

Investment Liberalization ◽

Trade And Investment

SMEs are of overwhelming importance to the young and growing economies of most Southeast Asian nations, but this is exceptionally the case for Myanmar. The country is rich with resources but has not managed to rid itself of post colonial mismanagement, socialist and bureaucratic tendencies. This paper evaluates the existing private sector development policy in Myanmar which can only be defined as lacking any substance, coherence and coordination. Myanmar needs to create a meaningful and comprehensive policy for the development of its private sector. This includes trade and investment liberalization and creation of infrastructure. Much can be learned from other members of ASEAN, such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, that have succeeded in similar endeavors.

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Beyond Paradigms

International Studies ◽

10.1177/0020881718794527 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 55 (3) ◽

pp. 213-237 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Salvador Santino F. Regilme

Keyword(s):

Foreign Policy ◽

Identity Politics ◽

Domestic Politics ◽

Southeast Asian ◽

Asian Countries ◽

The Us ◽

The Usa ◽

Chinese Military ◽

Security Guarantees

Why did claimant states in the South China Sea (SCS) dispute, especially China, recently increase its militarization activities, in unprecedented ways that were relatively absent in the previous decades? Espousing an analytically eclectic explanation rather than using one single International Relations (IR) paradigm, this essay demonstrates three key exploratory arguments. First, the enduring Chinese military insecurity from American dominance in Southeast Asia has been recently amplified by the confluence of China’s economic rise, and more importantly, the power struggle in the current Xi Jinping-led regime. The article offers a domestic politics-oriented approach in explaining the strategic resolve of Beijing to militarize the disputed SCS region. Second, although many countries in the region uphold a ‘hedging foreign policy strategy’, which refers to their strategic engagement both with China and the USA, the Southeast Asian countries’ patterns of foreign policy behaviour and identity politics suggest that their longterm aspiration still relies on the USA as their primary security guarantor. Third, notwithstanding such perception of Southeast Asian states towards the USA, this article demonstrates that Washington’s long-term commitment of upholding its security guarantees to its Southeast Asian partners is hindered by the US interest to strategically engage with Beijing on broader issues of global governance.

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