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oundtable • non-claimant perspectives on the south china sea<br />
ASEAN’s Stakes:<br />
The South China Sea’s Challenge to Autonomy and Agency<br />
Alice D. Ba<br />
The South China Sea has come to involve important stakes for all<br />
involved. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is no<br />
different—though its situation is also notably distinct. The South China<br />
Sea occupies what Michael Leifer once characterized as the geographic<br />
“heart of Southeast Asia.” 1 Geography alone means that whatever happens<br />
in the South China Sea affects ASEAN states the most directly. Moreover,<br />
as smaller powers, these states confront much greater vulnerabilities<br />
when it comes to great-power demands, even as they may be particular<br />
beneficiaries of great-power association. China’s activities in the South<br />
China Sea have no doubt underscored these dilemmas as the ASEAN<br />
states all try to navigate between the strategic vulnerabilities and the<br />
economic opportunities associated with a rising, more confident China.<br />
Nor are ASEAN states’ great-power dilemmas limited to China: the<br />
latter’s activities in the South China Sea have also precipitated heightened<br />
attention from the United States. ASEAN’s challenge is thus compounded<br />
by the fact that the South China Sea has become an important focal point<br />
of rivalry and tension between the ASEAN region’s two most important<br />
great-power relationships. Maintaining a space between China and<br />
the United States—one in which Southeast Asian states can enjoy some<br />
range of maneuver and choice—may prove to be the greatest challenge<br />
confronting the ASEAN region.<br />
This essay considers what is at stake in the South China Sea disputes<br />
for ASEAN’s coalition of smaller powers, with special attention paid to<br />
institutional interests and constraints. It considers not only the more<br />
immediate challenges created by territorial disputes but also the more<br />
general great-power dilemmas that heightened tensions have recently<br />
thrown into sharp relief.<br />
alice d. ba is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and International<br />
Relations at the University of Delaware. She can be reached at .<br />
1 Michael Leifer, The ASEAN Regional Forum (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), 9.<br />
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