Sarah Teo

Middle power identities of Australia and South Korea: comparing the Kevin Rudd/Julia Gillard and Lee Myung-bak administrations

ABSTRACT This paper explores the middle power identities of Australia and South Korea during the Kevin Rudd/Julia Gillard (2007–2013) and Lee Myung-bak (2008–2013) administrations. Considering the problems in the existing position, behaviour, impact and identity-based definitions of middle powers, examining how self-identified middle powers have constructed such an identity would offer useful insights into the middle power concept. Relying on a framework that captures an identitys content and contestation, this paper argues that while Australia and South Korea have assumed a middle power identity, their visualisations of this identity are slightly different. Australia has understood its middle power identity in both economic and security terms, whereas South Korea appears to have connected such an identity more with the economic dimension. These differences affect how they envision their respective middle power roles in international affairs.

Rising Sino-Japanese competition: perspectives from South-East Asian elites

ABSTRACT One of the biggest challenges for the East Asian region today is the Sino-Japanese relationship. Starting with the fishing trawler incident in September 2010, followed by Japans nationalisation of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, this relationship is experiencing an escalation of tensions in most, if not all, areas of the bilateral relationship. In response to the intensifying competition, China and Japan have elevated the importance of South-East Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in their foreign policy strategies. Focusing on how elites from five South-East Asian states—Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam—perceive the engagement of China and Japan with the region, this article poses two questions: (1) How do South-East Asian elites view the Sino-Japanese competition? and (2) How do South-East Asian elites view the role of ASEAN in managing the competition? The analysis here concludes that while some South-East Asian elites see opportunities in the Sino-Japanese competition, they nevertheless do not perceive it as an issue of critical significance. Instead, the concern lies generally with major-power dynamics, and particularly with Sino-US relations. ASEAN is viewed to lack the ability to manage the negative consequences of the Sino-Japanese competition, although its external balancing function has perceptibly helped to restrain any escalation of major-power tensions.

The Role of Think Tanks in Shaping Policy Debates in Asia: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies

The influence of think tanks has greatly increased in Asia. As a leading research and graduate teaching institution in strategic and international affairs, the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) works in both track one, official channels, and track two, unofficial channels. This chapter presents two concrete policy debates where RSIS was able to assist track-one diplomacy and influence the process of policy-making in Asia. The case studies focus on the preventive diplomacy agenda in the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the policy debates around the future of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) beyond 2015. They illustrate the depth and breadth of research conducted at RSIS, ranging from traditional security to economic multilateralism. The discussion examines how RSIS succeeded in achieving policy influence in these two specific cases and analyzes how its own attributes and practices may have contributed in the process.