Major Power Competition and Internal Politics in Asia

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Major power competition has returned to contemporary Asia. One of the central political dynamics in the region are efforts by major powers to influence smaller states, and the strategies of those states to in turn gain benefits and power amidst these external rivalries. In addition to governments, ethnic and diaspora groups, political parties, and militaries can all be major players in shaping how these competitions play out. This is a rich topic for political science: it blends subfields, relies on both detailed case-specific context and more general theoretical claims, mixes quantitative (especially survey) and qualitative methods, and has applicability to other time periods and regions.

This panel proposal includes five excellent papers that explore how major powers try to influence smaller states and how these smaller states respond. A prolific young scholar of domestic politics and IR, Rachel Myrick, has agreed to serve as discussant. She provides a distinctive perspective as someone who is deeply knowledgeable about the literature but without an Asia-specific focus, allowing her to identify opportunities to integrate regionally-grounded analysis with broad disciplinary questions.

Audrye Wong’s paper studies the opportunities and limits of PRC efforts to mobilize the overseas Chinese diaspora. Comparing Malaysia and Australia, she finds that this strategy has serious limits. While it can generate short-term benefits, explicit diaspora mobilization can weaken the diaspora’s influence in its host country. Moreover, more diverse diaspora communities are difficult to mobilize in the first place, placing a ceiling on Beijing’s ability to use the overseas Chinese population as a strategic tool.

Ian Chong studies a related phenomenon: empirically mapping the network of interactions between clan and native place associations and PRC state and Chinese Communist Party entities as well as the activities that characterise such engagement. In doing so, his paper seeks to distinguish between more benign exchanges from behavior that may negatively affect or distort political processes in host states (sometimes known as “sharp power”). While Wong’s paper examines the consequences of explicit political mobilization, Chong’s tries to disaggregate these interactions, suggesting that there are multiple concepts at play that should not be muddled together.

Deepak Nair studies how developing country elites have publicly claimed to espouse a nonaligned position in global affairs. Proposing a “dramaturgical” approach, he focuses on performances of non-alignment and argues these can be meaningful political acts through three mechanisms. First, these performances can be a resource in power struggles within the ruling elite; second, performances allow the regime/ ruling elite to assuage publics wedded to different national identities; and third, these performances allow an incumbent regime/elite to signal disaffection or reassurance to a Major Power. He compares three classic cases of non-alignment in the developing world from the Cold War: India, Indonesia and Cambodia.

Christina Lai examines how Taiwan how tried to frame the relationship between democracy and security during the 2009-2023 period. She carefully studies official discourse and documents to see how Taiwanese political elites and bureaucratic actors have tried to situate Taiwan in the broader Indo-Pacific, with a particular eye on how they have tried to appeal to the United States. She leverages longitudinal variation in rhetoric to show how Taiwanese leaders have strategically associated Taiwan’s liberal democracy with U.S. national security.

Paul Staniland studies how domestic politics shape the impact of major power competition on smaller states. He theorizes how the distribution of political power within a country and the salience of the major power competition affect a smaller state’s choices about how to operate in the midst of an external rivalry. External alignments are deeply embedded in varying domestic political configurations, leading to distinct trajectories of small state strategy during major power competition. He uses a systematic medium-N study of South and Southeast Asia states navigating major power competition during the Cold War and in the post-2005 period to explore the strengths and weaknesses of the argument, and then draws out implications for policy and future research.

The papers are thematically related but diverse in method, ranging from studies of surveys to historical comparisons to archival work to research inspired by performance studies. They are unified in their focus on Asia, but the discussant will approach them from a non-regional position of expertise, helping to deepen connections to a broader range of disciplinary debates. As major power competition surges in Asia (as well as Europe and the Middle East), we hope the papers and discussion will offer important new insights into how these competitions play out within the smaller states caught in the midst of these rivalries.

Sub Unit

• Division 43: International History and Politics

Cosponsor

• Division 19: International Security 

Individual Presentations

• Taiwan’s Framing Strategy of Democracy and Security in the Indo-Pacific - Christina Lai, Academia Sinica

• Diaspora Statecraft and China’s Foreign Influence Activities - Audrye Wong, University of Southern California

• Distinguishing PRC Informal Diplomacy and Sharp Power in Southeast Asia - Ja Ian Chong, National University of Singapore

• Performing Non-alignment: A Dramaturgical Account - Deepak Nair, Australian National University

• Major Power Competition and the Internal Politics of Smaller State Alignment - Paul Staniland, University of Chicago

Chair

• Paul Staniland University of Chicago

Discussant

• Rachel Maureen Myrick Duke University