ABSTRACT
Discussions of security order in Asia typically revolve around questions of geopolitics, the balance of power, the purported grand strategies of major powers, and the form and contribution of formal regional institutions or the so-called “regional security architecture”. This essentially realist approach operates with a notion of states as coherent, territorially bounded, strategic actors. The chapter argues that it misses important developments in regional security order associated with the transformation of states beyond this “Westphalian” model, such as transnational governance networks to address non-traditional security threats or the fragmentation and internationalisation of Chinese state apparatuses associated with China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
