Study On ASEAN’s Collective Hedging Strategy

Since the 2010 s,in the context of the great power game,especially the strategic competition between China and the United States,Southeast Asian countries have been pursuing a hedging strategy between balancing and bandwagoning,which in essence is a variety of policy options to cope with uncertainty,avoid or offset risks and pursue maximum benefits.Faced with China’s enormous size,vast market potential and growing military power,ASEAN countries have mixed feelings.On the one hand,they hope to better catch a ride on China’s fast train of development for their own benefit;on the other hand,the uncertainty of the international situation has increased after China and the United States have slipped into strategic competition,and Southeast Asian countries will bear the brunt of any mistake.Based on this background,Southeast Asian countries generally adopt hedging strategies.ASEAN,as the representative of the collective interests of Southeast Asian countries and the central position in the regional structure,is also the main carrier for Southeast Asian countries to practice their hedging strategies.Moreover,as a political entity,ASEAN itself is also the main agent of hedging strategic behavior.As a symbol of collective interests and an independent actor,how ASEAN practices its collective hedging strategy in the context of the Sino-US strategic game is the main issue discussed in this paper.Thus,this paper endeavors to investigate and explore the behavioral logic of ASEAN’s collective hedging strategy driven by both its own development needs and the structural pressure of the Sino-US game,and to analyze it in comparison with the behavioral logic of individual ASEAN member states’ hedging strategies.This paper introduces the concept of collective hedging strategy to explore the motivation,concrete manifestations,and effectiveness of collective hedging strategy.In this paper,collective hedging strategy is defined as a collective mechanism that small and medium-sized countries rely on to restrain the behavior of large countries in order to lessen uncertainty,avoid or offset risks,and maximize their own interests,based on a common regional structure.It mainly consists of two parts: risk perception and collective hedging practice.As an independent concept,collective hedging strategy has both the basic connotation of hedging strategy and its own unique connotation,while it can also serve as an effective complement to the hedging strategy of individual countries.This paper compares the hedging strategy case studies of three individual ASEAN member countries,such as Vietnam,Singapore and the Philippines,with the ASEAN’s collective hedging strategy to further improve and enrich the observation perspective of the two hedging strategies in terms of hedging approaches,hedging effectiveness and limitations,so as to reflect more clearly and comprehensively the intrinsic causes and external effects of ASEAN’s collective hedging strategy.The practice of ASEAN’s collective hedging strategy is bound to have certain limitations,such as weak overall strength,difficulty in supporting and maintaining the regional cooperation system,inability to deal with structural conflicts,wide differences among member states,and the space for policy options being compressed by the intensification of the great power game.However,in any case,the collective hedging strategy is the main strategic option for ASEAN to deal with the Sino-US Strategic Competition at present.Thus,exploring the internal logic of ASEAN’s collective hedging strategy can help us better contribute to the healthy and sustainable development of China-ASEAN relations.