Soft Balancing in the Indo-Asia-Pacific

Alica Kizekova investigates the use of regional organizations and soft balancing by great and middle powers in the Indo-Asia-Pacific. To test the validity of soft-balancing behaviour, the case of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is compared to the soft-balancing cooperation within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) when dealing with a re-emerging China of the early 1990s. China’s regional policies with respect to disputed claims in the South China Sea alarmed the ASEAN member states prompting fears about potential Chinese aggression and arguing that soft balancing in the form of ASEAN-led government-to-government and non-official multilateral structures ’socialize’ China towards regionally responsible behaviour and a commitment to shared norms. This book finds that soft balancing has thus been a strategy of critical significance for both ASEAN and SCO, deserving an enhanced level of recognition for its role in coordinating regional relations.