The contemporary struggle in Asia is as much about competing strategic ‘imaginaries’ as it is about military or economic power. Geopolitics is a way of framing the world; it rests on imagining and prioritizing some form of connectivity: which parts are connected to each other more importantly than with others? Thus, geopolitical competition is essentially a contest over which imagined connected community is most important.
Evelyn Goh analyses the three main competing strategic imaginaries of Asia today: the ‘Asia-Pacific’; a revived ‘Greater Asia’ made possible by China’s resurgence; and the ‘Indo-Pacific’ visions. All three will persist for the foreseeable future and will affect how international actors deal with Asia.
Watch the recording here.