COLUMNS
In China's Backyard, Charting the Course of Most Advantage
Mar 7, 2019 | 10:00 GMT
(TED ALJIBE/AFP/Getty Images)
Highlights
- In the mounting great power competition between the United States and China, both countries will strive to build influence among the smaller powers of Southeast Asia.
- Southeast Asian nations, however, will not fall into neat Chinese or U.S. spheres, instead playing the middle to gain advantages from both.
- This fits the strategy many pursued during the Cold War and, in the new great power arena, they will find it easier to preserve greater autonomy.