INTRODUCTION TO THE ARTICLE: Trends and Trenches in the Indo-Pacific: A Southeast Asian View (CSCAP Regional Security Outlook 2020)

The CSCAP Regional Security Outlook is an annual publication issued by the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP). The publication compiles in-depth perspectives from renowned scholars worldwide, highlighting regional security issues and fostering connections between Track I and Track II actors within multilateral frameworks to address common security challenges in the region. The Indo-Pacific region has increasingly become a key area in terms of economic, political-security, technological, and strategic importance on a global scale. It is also a space where cooperation and intense competition among major powers intersect, and where numerous hotspots of traditional and non-traditional security exist, requiring countries to continuously adjust their strategies to respond and develop. In the article Trends and Trenches in the Indo-Pacific: A Southeast Asian View, published in the CSCAP Regional Security Outlook 2020, Dr. Lê Đình Tĩnh from the Institute for Strategic Studies, Diplomatic Academy of 

Vietnam, outlines the main trends in the Indo-Pacific in 2020 from the perspective of a Southeast Asian scholar. The article analyzes the escalation of competition and compromise among major powers, signs of a slowdown in globalization, the science and technology revolution, the return of power politics, and non-traditional security issues in the Indo-Pacific. Alongside these trends, it examines national policy choices and the role of multilateral mechanisms in the regional structure. 

Readers can access the publication here.