ABSTRACT

The Indo-Pacific region's security landscape is unfolding in highly uncertain and potentially explosive ways. The postwar American-led network of bilateral alliances – underpinned by concrete guarantees of extended deterrence and containment – is now yielding to a more diverse set of alignments and coalitions to manage an increasingly complex array of regional security issues. Multilateralism and minilateralism have emerged as two increasingly prominent forms of such cooperation. Minilateralism's informality and flexibility appeals to those who are sceptical about multilateralism's traditional focus on norm adherence and community-building even as great power competition in the Indo-Pacific is sharply intensifying. However, minilateralism's track record in the region is underdeveloped. The potential for this policy approach to be applied by the United States and its regional security partners as an enduring and credible means of diplomatic and security collaboration in the region will remain unfulfilled as long as the Trump administration's own geopolitical orientation remains uncertain.

摘要

印度太平洋地区的安全格局正在以高度不确定性和潜在爆炸性的方式展现。战后美国主导的双边联盟网络得到了广泛的威慑和遏制的具体保证，现在正形成一系列更多样化的联合和联盟，以管理日益复杂的一系列地区安全问题。多边主义和小边主义已成为这种合作的两种日益突出的形式。尽管印度-太平洋地区的大国竞争在急剧加剧，但对多边主义传统上注重规范遵守和社区建设的人持怀疑态度的人吸引了单边主义的非正式性和灵活性。但是，该地区的单边主义往绩不高。