ABSTRACT
Regions are not natural realities that are obvious geographical manifestations. Quite the contrary, all regions are socially constructed through political processes. Discussions on and attempts to redefine or rescale Asia by the leading powers of the region, namely Australia, China, India, Japan and the US, needs to be considered in this context. As socially constructed political projects, the Chinese-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the US-led Indo-Pacific Partnership (IPP) represent competing visions for how political-economic and security structures of the Asia-Indo-Pacific region should evolve in the coming decades. This study, based on official policy documents and speeches of Chinese and IPP countries’ leaders, aims to provide insights into the competing regional institutional arrangements proposed by the BRI and the IPP. It argues that the Chinese-led initiative, at least in rhetoric and in terms of membership, is an inclusive project based on economic connectivity and cooperation among countries, whereas the IPP, despite its increasing economic focus, is mainly a security related and exclusionary concept. Furthermore, the BRI seems to have an advantage over the IPP due to its lack of clear leadership, difficulties in matching diverging priorities and the fractured approach taken by the IPP countries.
