Southeast Asian perspectives on regional alliance dynamics: the Philippines and Thailand

摘要

Thailand and the Philippines, the only formal US allies in Southeast Asia, have reacted ambivalently to China's selective contestation of the US-led regional order. At the level of primary institutions, they wholly align with neither major power's evolving stances on sovereignty and great-power management; this ambivalence then duly finds expression, at the level of secondary institutions, in less than smooth alliance trajectories. While the role they play in the emerging East Asian networked security architecture is also not entirely lacking in ambiguity, these networking arrangements have nevertheless proved a highly effective vehicle for nuanced and fluid messaging. They enable the allies to signal resistance to Beijing's more muscular endeavours (while not 'ganging up' on China or rejecting its right to rise in legitimate ways) and to support the USA in its position at the top of the hierarchy (while allowing other players to also develop more proactive roles).