THE INDO-PACIFICIZATION OF ASIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE REGIONAL AND LOCAL ORDER

[Wunder-Zeichen]

The Indo-Pacificization Of Asia: Implications For The Regional Order

Geopolitical Monitor: The Indo-Pacific is a vast geographical region that encompasses the Indian Ocean and the western and central Pacific Oceans, including the many seas in Southeast Asia and Oceania. In a geopolitical context, the term only started to appear in the lexicon of geopolitics in the late 2010s. The late Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo first referred to the confluence of the Indian and Pacific Oceans in mid-2007, and the official use of “Indo-Pacific” first appeared in Australia’s 2013 Defense White Paper. Since then, the U.S., India, EU, and ASEAN have all published their respective visions and strategies for the Indo-Pacific. What drove the emergence of this vast super-region in the geopolitical discourse?

Mental Maps, the Far East, and the Asia-Pacific: Regions are social constructs that serve political agendas. Fundamentally, they are mental maps that revolve around power, shape identity, agenda setting, and sense of belonging as a stakeholder in a shared space. Regional identities form the basis for which a state perceives itself vis-à-vis others. A logical consequence of the dynamic nature of political agendas is that regional constructs are also dynamic, and subject to reflect the given state of international relations. The contemporary Indo-Pacific construct is a relatively recent phenomenon. Previously, the term “Far East” was widely used. The term has mostly fallen out of popular use, due to its certain connotations with eurocentrism, colonialism, and cultural exoticism. The term was also initially used by Imperial Japan, but it later opted for “East Asia” in an attempt to create an alternative region order in the form of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. Fast-forward to the late twentieth century, the Asia-Pacific emerged as a new regional construct with the world’s largest ocean – the Pacific – at its heart. What was previously seen as a geographical barrier is instead seen through the lens of connectivity, where shipping lanes and flight routes would bring the emerging economies of Asia closer to the developed markets of the U.S. This occurred in the context of the unipolar moment, where the United States emerged from the Cold War as the world’s sole superpower. It is within this unipolar framework that the U.S. was able to act as the security guarantor the regional order through hubs and spokes – a series of bilateral security ties between the U.S. and its partners in Asia.

The India Factor: The “Indo-Pacificization” of Asia is manifested in two ways – first, the recognition that India may no longer be excluded from the Asian strategic system; second, the emergence of contending visions for regional order building. The India factor is the most intuitive, representing the “Indo” in “Indo-Pacific,” but its meaning is two-fold – a more proactive India, as well as the merger of the Indian and Pacific Oceans into one strategic system. India is a rising power, which apart from growing internally, also has a proactive foreign policy culture. India’s Act East Policy, the successor to the Look East Policy, is an effort by New Delhi to cultivate extensive economic and strategic ties with nations in the Indo-Pacific. For instance, the India-Japan strategic partnership saw both nations engage in regular naval exercises, political exchanges, and military-to-military contact. Accordingly, scholar Dhruva Jaishankar stated that “Tokyo has become an indispensable partner in the region’s security architecture as per New Delhi’s calculations.” Furthermore, India also expanded diplomatic, economic and security ties with South China Sea countries like Vietnam, and demonstrated a general willingness to strengthen its ties with ASEAN. With that, India increased its presence in the South China Sea when its navy conducted bilateral exercises with various ASEAN member states, signalling to the world its stake in the region. The implication of which is that India’s engagement in the Indo-Pacific is partially driven by its concerns regarding China’s newfound status.

Summary: The Indo-Pacific as we know it today inherited many attributes from the preceding Asia-Pacific. It remains a fact that the region is one of economic growth and cooperation, however, with greater strategic elements infused into it. Perhaps the biggest and most significant difference between the two regional constructs is the latter’s inclusion of India and the Indian Ocean. The country has demonstrated a willingness and capacity to engage in the region, both economically and strategically, and both bilaterally and multilaterally. The Indo-Pacific is not only India looking eastward, but also China looking westward, as it realizes that its fate and fortunes extend beyond the Malacca Straits and into the Indian Ocean. The result of which is the emergence of regional ordering visions like FOIP and BRI to make sense of this super-region.