Staff Page
KUIK, Cheng-Chwee
- Research Departments・Position
- Political & Economic Coexistence
Guest Scholar (Japan Foundation JFSEAP Visiting Fellow) - Area
- International Relations, Comparative Foreign Policy, Asian Security, Big Powers in Southeast Asia, International Institutions in the Global South
- Research Interests / Keywords
- Non-Big Powers’ Alignment Choices, Strategic Hedging, Elite Legitimation and Foreign Policy Behavior
- Period
- 2025/09/07
2026/03/04 - Affiliation
- National University of Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia
- Contact
- cckuik@gmail.com
KUIK, Cheng-Chwee
Overview
Explaining Southeast Asian Responses to Japan’s Official Security Assistance (OSA): Hedging and the Politics of Strategic Diversification
As a scholar of International Relations, I have researched and written about the interactions among small states and big powers using a “three-i” approach, seeking inter-disciplinary insights, inter-civilizational ideas, and inter-regional inspirations. Having undergone IR graduate and postdoctoral training in the West, but with educational roots in Malaysia and other parts of Southeast Asia, I am pleased to take a six-month sabbatical at CSEAS following a three-month fellowship in Seoul. My sabbatical at CSEAS is made possible by the 2025 Japan Foundation Southeast Asia Partnership (JFSEAP) Program.
My project at CSEAS is a comparative study of how and why Southeast Asian countries respond to Japan’s Official Security Assistance (OSA). This is an extension of my upcoming book Theorizing Hedging: Explaining Shifts and Variations in Alignment Choices (Cambridge, 2025) and a part of my ongoing research on the evolving alignment choices of “middle states,” or those sandwiched between two or more competing big powers. My previous studies found that most Southeast Asian states pursue varying forms of neutrality-plus policies to hedge against the risks of an intensifying U.S.-China rivalry, primarily by actively and inclusively diversifying their strategic and development partnerships. This project will focus on the Japan factor in the Southeast Asian hedgers’ evolving strategic equations.
While Japan-Southeast Asia partnerships are not new, today’s partnerships have new forms and dynamics. In addition to deepening decades-long development and diplomatic cooperation, Japan and the ASEAN states have also gradually embarked on defense and security partnerships. Central to this trend is Japan’s recent Official Security Assistance (OSA), which aims to boost the defense capabilities of maritime countries in the Indo-Pacific, as bulwarks against an increasingly assertive China. This project evaluates the perceptions and responses of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam to Japan’s OSA. These states are selected primarily because they are among the early OSA recipients (alongside the Philippines) and because they have pursued hedging policies (unlike the Philippines, which adopts a balancing policy).
My project at CSEAS is a comparative study of how and why Southeast Asian countries respond to Japan’s Official Security Assistance (OSA). This is an extension of my upcoming book Theorizing Hedging: Explaining Shifts and Variations in Alignment Choices (Cambridge, 2025) and a part of my ongoing research on the evolving alignment choices of “middle states,” or those sandwiched between two or more competing big powers. My previous studies found that most Southeast Asian states pursue varying forms of neutrality-plus policies to hedge against the risks of an intensifying U.S.-China rivalry, primarily by actively and inclusively diversifying their strategic and development partnerships. This project will focus on the Japan factor in the Southeast Asian hedgers’ evolving strategic equations.
While Japan-Southeast Asia partnerships are not new, today’s partnerships have new forms and dynamics. In addition to deepening decades-long development and diplomatic cooperation, Japan and the ASEAN states have also gradually embarked on defense and security partnerships. Central to this trend is Japan’s recent Official Security Assistance (OSA), which aims to boost the defense capabilities of maritime countries in the Indo-Pacific, as bulwarks against an increasingly assertive China. This project evaluates the perceptions and responses of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam to Japan’s OSA. These states are selected primarily because they are among the early OSA recipients (alongside the Philippines) and because they have pursued hedging policies (unlike the Philippines, which adopts a balancing policy).