Cheng-Chwee Kuik

Cheng-Chwee Kuik is Professor in International Relations at the National University of Malaysia and concurrently a non-resident scholar at Carnegie China.

Recent articles by Cheng-Chwee Kuik

Impossible trinity drives Southeast Asia’s prudent hedging

Impossible trinity drives Southeast Asia’s prudent hedging

In Southeast Asia, hedging is a pragmatic policy that maintains options and mitigates risks. While some ASEAN states, like the Philippines, are aligning more closely with the United States, most are pursuing a more inclusive and selective approach to partnerships, ensuring concurrent engagement with China and the United States. This approach is more desirable in the absence of a clear-cut threat and allows states to maximise other goals while keeping their security options open.

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