Impossible trinity drives prudent hedging in Southeast Asia

FPI Senior Fellow Cheng-Chwee Kuik writes in East Asia Forum Quarterly. Southeast Asian countries "hedge" between the US and China, seeing "both superpowers as sources of problems but also sources of support and solutions, albeit in different domains, to different degrees and for different reasons." Such a strategy is "best understood as a pragmatic policy to mitigate risks and maintain fallback options, rather than a fence-sitting or opportunistic act." It's a way of balancing an "impossible trinity" of security, prosperity, and autonomy while working with larger powers.

Read the full article here: https://eastasiaforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/East_Asia_Forum_Quarterly_Volume_16_No_2_-April-June_2024-1.pdf