Ms Hanh Nguyen1
1Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Biography:
Hanh Nguyen is a Ph.D. Candidate at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, the Australian National University. Her research interests include economic security, Asian security architecture, Southeast Asia’s geopolitics, and Vietnam. She is currently a Research Fellow at Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies (YCAPS) and previously, a non-resident WSD-Handa fellow at Pacific Forum.
Abstract:
Economic crises frequently lead to initial tensions in international cooperation as countries prioritize domestic issues. However, these crises can eventually serve as a catalyst for increased international collaboration. International relations theories often underestimate the impact of this variable on cooperation. This paper asks whether and how economic crises can affect the nature and trajectory of multilateral security cooperation by analysing the development of ASEAN-led security cooperation after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the 2008 global financial crisis, and the 2020 COVID crisis. Employing insights from theories of international political economy and agent-centred historical institutionalism, the paper argues that economic crises bring about changes in the formation and preferences of domestic coalitions, which inform national policies toward regional cooperation. States then advance their policies and navigate constraints within regional institutions to achieve their goals. By analysing this two-way interaction between domestic politics and international cooperation, the paper will outline factors for economic crises to have an impact on multilateral security cooperation. It thus departs from the usual perspective on the linkage between economic interdependence and security. Furthermore, the paper prioritizes the long-term, variable effect of crises on international cooperation over the usual focus on short-term impact.
Keywords: crises, security cooperation, ASEAN, historical institutionalism, domestic coalitions