Kablukov Kirill

ASEAN’s and QUAD’s ways to secure Asia Pacific: comparative analysis

ЮГО-ВОСТОЧНАЯ АЗИЯ: АКТУАЛЬНЫЕ ПРОБЛЕМЫ РАЗВИТИЯ, 2022, №1(54), 53-65

 
Annotation: Since the mid-2010s, trade and economic wars in the Asia-Pacific region between the United States and China has begun to acquire a geopolitical character, which led to the escalation of many frozen conflicts in the region. One of the consequences of this confrontation was the constitution of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD). This entity, despite its informal nature, has become increasingly involved in the regional agenda of the Asia-Pacific region, undermining the results of ASEAN's long work of concentrating regional security issues within its institutions. This article is aimed at a comparative analysis of the foreign policy mechanisms of QUAD and ASEAN in the context of the formation of a regional security system in the Asia-Pacific region. The author argues that QUAD and ASEAN have conceptual differences in their approaches to ensuring security in the region. For ASEAN, these are progressive practices for resolving conflicts based on international law and multilateralism. For QUAD, these are traditional, realistic methods of power competition based on the balance of power and military. At the end of the article, the author comes to the conclusion that each approach has its own strengths and weaknesses in realms of regional stability and development. In addition, the author argues that the reaction of the Chinese government to the processes of regional transformation will be decisive in the issues of regional security in the Asia-Pacific region for the short-term perspective.

Keywords: Asia-Pacific, QUAD, China, ASEAN, regional processes