Vietnam and the Philippines: Neorealist/Liberal Internationalist Actorness and Middle Power Agency in the Indo-Pacific
Résumé
In September 2023, Vietnam and the US announced the creation of a comprehensive strategic partnership with the country’s one-party state. In the Philippines, President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. has made since 2022 his country Washington’s ‘new star ally’, according to some within the Washington Beltway. Not only do these developments suggest a convergence of Vietnamese and Filipino foreign and security policies, they would also seem to indicate at least an acquiescence in the US trope of a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’. To understand this convergence the unique political trajectories of both countries, and, above all, the agency of political actors needs to be taken into account. In this chapter, following an exploration of the role of Filipino actors in the international relations of the Indo-Pacific, we explore the actions of Vietnamese political leaders. The latter would seem to act in a realist way, while their Filipino counterparts could be considered as liberal internationalists. We argue that the different forms of middle power agency need to be understood by looking at three indigenous and two endogenous factors. These are geography, capabilities, public opinion in relation to regime type, US and Chinese behavior, and the place given to the regional organization ASEAN.
