Thammasat University students interested in South Asian studies, political science, history, diplomacy, international relations, futurology, ecology, environmental studies, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 14 January Zoom webinar on A Blueprint for an Open and Pluralistic Indo-Pacific.
The event, on Tuesday, 14 January 2025 at 1pm Bangkok time, is presented by ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore.
The TU Library collection includes some books about different aspects of the Indo-Pacific region.
Students are welcome to register for the event at this link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/3217344276601/WN_2hvK8I8CTY6-MHeDp5tKow#/registration
The event website explains:
Much of the recent debate over the Indo-Pacific idea is grounded in short-term history and somewhat narrow strategic and policy considerations. The vision of a “free and open” Indo-Pacific promoted by the US has been contested by China. Acharya and Pardesi argue that for the Indo-Pacific to be viable in the long-term, it must be grounded in indigenous history, rather than contemporary great power geopolitics.
A possible model for a genuinely free and open Indo-Pacific can be found in the Indian Ocean system before the arrival of European imperial powers. Then, an expansive, vibrant and rules-based order of trade and cultural flows was organized not by great power/s, be it China or India, but by small and dynamic port city-states from Malindi in East Africa to Malacca in Southeast Asia. While history may not repeat itself, the past suggests possibilities for the future.
With the passing of Western hegemony, the emerging Asian order would be neither unipolar (whether under China or the US) nor bipolar (based on Sino-US rivalry). Rather it would be a multiplex, or a de-centered, non-hegemonic international order. In this context, Southeast Asian countries should pay attention to their own past and their own agency to develop an open and inclusive Indo-Pacific framework, rather than applying outmoded Euro-American models of unipolarity or multipolarity.
About the Speakers
Dr. Amitav Acharya is the UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance and Distinguished Professor at the School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC. […]
Dr. Manjeet S. Pardesi is Associate Professor of International Relations in the Political Science and International Relations Programme, and Asia Research Fellow at the Centre for Strategic Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. […]
The Indo-Pacific is a maritime region that includes the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and the seas that connect them:
The Indo-Pacific is a broad region defined differently by different actors.
It is based on maritime geography and highlights the importance of the region’s shipping and trade routes.
The Indo-Pacific includes the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the seas that connect them.
It does not include the temperate and polar regions of the Indian and Pacific oceans, or the Tropical Eastern Pacific.
The Indo-Pacific is a focal point of geopolitical strategy and tension. It is home to the world’s most important sea routes, and to the world’s most populated nations.
The Indo-Pacific includes many countries and economies, including Thailand, Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, and more.
Thailand is a partner in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), along with Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam.
The IPEF is an economic agreement that includes four pillars: connected, resilient, clean, and fair economies.
An article published in 2019 in The Diplomat explained:
What Is the Indo-Pacific?
The cartography of the world can be broadly understood in three ways. One can make sense of the world through its geographical demarcations — land and water, plateaus and peninsulas, seas and oceans. Another way of perceiving the world is through its political boundaries — continents and states, islands and territorial seas, continental shelves and exclusive economic zones.
A third way of interpreting the map is through an imagination of a space that transcends both of the above. In simple terms, a mental map carved out of a space. An imaginative space of such kind might not find itself on the geographical map, like the Af-Pak region, nor does it always fits into existing political dimensions, for example the Asia-Pacific region.
The Indo-Pacific is one such mental map that has gained currency in recent times. Like every imagined space, there is disagreement over what characterizes the space and who imagines it. In terms of geo-spatiality, the Indo-Pacific is broadly to be understood as an interconnected space between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.
Its expanse is debated to be ranging from the eastern shores of Africa to the western coast of the United States, albeit with variations in definitions depending on each actor and their own geographic positioning in the vast expanse. In a more functional understanding, the interconnectedness and the interdependence of the two oceans is a product of growing forces of globalization, trade and changing equations between various actors which has broken down older boundaries and opened up new avenues. Growing mobility across the oceans has helped formulate an integrated approach.
Given that it contains the world’s most crucial sea routes, the world’s most populous nations fueling high energy demands on its rims and a stretch encapsulating finest global commons, the Indo-Pacific is adjudged to be the center of the globe in terms of politics and economics.
Strategically, the Indo-Pacific has been seen as a continuum across the two oceans joined together by its main trading channel, the straits of Malacca. Two broad reasons explain the rise of a strategic imagination of the Indo-Pacific. First, the growing footprint of China across the length and breadth of the region and second, the relative decline of the U.S. alliance system and its strive for resurgence.
Beijing’s maritime advances have sprawled across the two oceans in a bid to secure its energy requirements and boost its trading ties. China’s rise has taken multiple forms. In the South China Sea, its irredentist claims have been showcased through territorial advances.
Its growing strides in South Asian waters alongside the “string” of port facilities across the Indian Ocean is likely to make it a resident power. In terms of connectivity and infrastructure, the Belt and Road Initiative puts forward the Chinese-led plan to bind the geopolitical space. Economically, China is a crucial trading partner for all the major states in the region and also taking active interests to lead the economic partnerships of the region.
The rise of China is to be read alongside a relative decline of the U.S. presence in the region. While the United States still is a net-security provider in the region for its allies and possesses the most potent navy, its strategies have left the door open for China in some cases and harmed its own allies in the rest.
Although the United States has accorded renewed importance to the Indo-Pacific by a significant renaming of the U.S. Pacific Command to the Indo-Pacific command, its unilateral withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and continuous calls for equitable burden-sharing for its allies has left its alliance system in limbo. Added to that, it has been unable to blow steam into the Quad grouping of like-minded democracies, comprised also of Australia, Japan and India in order to build the much touted “free and open Indo-Pacific.” […]
Like every imaginative space, the Indo-Pacific is a construct of contested interpretation, necessitating warring visions and constructs likely to be wrestled out between opposed strategic stakeholders in the region. A rising China, a defiant United States, and a host of other regional actors in the ongoing Indo-Pacific are likely to define the politics of the region, which is open to multiple possibilities.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)