Southeast Asia in the Sino-U.S. Strategic Balance

In his article "The Geography of Peace", Robert Ross postulates that a bipolar regional power balance has emerged in East Asia. This theory is premised on the assumption that smaller Asian states will seek to compensate for their own vulnerability by clearly aligning with either China or the United States. In the case of Southeast Asia, however, stable but competitive Sino-U.S. relations have provided ASEAN states with considerable strategic leverage. Although these states maintain a close relationship with their respective geopolitically dominant great power, this leverage allows them to manoeuvre between and to strengthen their autonomy vis-à-vis China and the United States. Closer examination of the 1998 addendum to the 1990 U.S.-Singapore Memorandum of Understanding, the 1999 U.S.-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement and the 1999 Sino-Thai Plan of Action for the 21^st Century demonstrates these trends.