Date : Wednesday, 11 August 2021
Time : 08.00 – 10.00 WIB
Platform : Zoom Meetings & Youtube Livestream
Speaker : Prof. Amitav Acharya, American University
Moderator : Dr. Poppy Sulistyaning Winanti, Universitas Gadjah Mada
Audience : Total of 1,856 participants from Southeast Asian countries
Lecture Topic
Indo-Pacific: An Alternative Conceptualization in Global International Relations
Five Principles of Indo-Pacific Cooperation
History. Indo-Pacific was the largest and the most open trade network before European colonization. There was no hegemonic power in the Indian Ocean: there was no US, no China. But even if it was a hegemonic system, it would give little impact in Indian Ocean trade. This is a tradition that survived and thrived for thousands of years.
Leadership. No hegemonic power. We know that Indian Ocean has prospered. The largest trading network in the world without a single hegemonic power. Maybe some states provide security to assailants, like Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, but they are not exercising hegemony or blocking other countries from passing through.
Cooperative Security. Any group that excludes other countries, no matter how big or small, has to be avoided. That is not the Indian Ocean tradition. Regional identity means openness, a “we” feeling - not “us versus them”.
Identity. That means we have to accept diversity. Diversity has worked very well in the Indian Ocean, not homogeneity.
Institutions. We need to think about how to bring different institutions that are already there in Southeast Asia, Asia-Pacific, or East Asia, into an Indo-Pacific architecture, or maybe create a new one.