150055 VU Current Developments in the Indo-Pacific: Focus on Northeast and Southeast Asia (2025S)

The aim of this course is to examine how current strategic and security developments in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly in Northeast and Southeast Asia, affect the regional order and balance of power. The region is developing into a global growth engine and offers numerous opportunities for economic exchange, including with Europe. However, peace and stability are threatened by the geostrategic and geo-economic Sino-US rivalry and many bilateral and regional disputes and conflicts with geopolitical repercussions. Uncertainty about the future strategy and policy of the Trump administration 2.0 increases the volatility in the region even further.

Besides the impact of the Sino-US rivalry, the key conflicts to be discussed will be the Cross-Strait relations, the tensions on the Korean peninsula and the unresolved territorial disputes in the South China and East China Seas as well as between Japan and Russia concerning the Kuril Islands. Also addressed will be non-traditional security threats such as climate change, poverty and underdevelopment, organized crime or people, weapons and drug smuggling.

To examine the security architecture and current dynamics in the region, we will also analyze selected bilateral relations, e.g., between China and the US, the US and Vietnam, China and the Philippines or North Korea and Russia, as well as minilateral (the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and AUKUS) and regional cooperation (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations). There will also be a special focus on how middle powers and smaller countries position themselves in the rivalry between China and the US and what strategies they pursue to promote their national interests. Moreover, we will address how non-regional actors such as the European Union seeks to deepen their engagement with East Asia.

The main aims of this course are:

- To provide a detailed assessment of the security architecture and the main conflicts and disputes in East Asia
- To analyze national, bi- and multilateral attempts to resolve or mitigate the existing traditional and non-traditional security risks and threats
- To demonstrate that while all East Asian nations are directly impacted by the Sino-US rivalry, also smaller nations have a certain amount of agency in international relations.