Order and Agency in the Indo-Pacific

This book offers several European perspectives on Indo-Pacific dynamics by a set of internationally recognized experts who have collaborated in the Franco-German Observatory of the Indo-Pacific. The observatory was established in 2021 by the Centre for International Studies (CERI) at Sciences Po, Paris and the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg and has since come to include many scholars and institutions from both countries. The book speaks to and updates existing scholarly discussions on Indo-Pacific dynamics, investigating the nexus of order(ing) and agency in that strategic space. The authors take US-China strategic competition as a contextual given and explore the Indo-Pacific as an interregnum, in terms of institutional dynamics and in terms of geo-narratives. The book also offers several case studies of middle and small power agency in the Indo-Pacific, examining the cases of Australia and Japan, India, the Philippines and Vietnam, and of Pacific Island Countries. A final chapter explores the perspectives of Chinese scholars on the Indo-Pacific as a strategic space.

Delphine Allès is Professor of Political Science and Vice President of Inalco, Paris.

Christophe Jaffrelot is Research Director at CERI-Sciences Po, Paris, and Professor at King’s College London.

Patrick Köllner is GIGA’s Vice President, Director of the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies, and Professor at the University of Hamburg, Germany.