A small state's foreign affairs strategy: Making sense of Malaysia's strategic response to the South China Sea debacle

ABSTRACT

Malaysia, being a small state in its asymmetrical relations with both the United States and China, is caught in a difficult position in the ongoing South China Sea debacle. Malaysia has been courted by both of these powerful states to be an influential regional facilitator to advance each of their respective strategic interests in the region. Malaysia's response thus far has been both cautious and enigmatic. This article traces Malaysia's foreign affairs strategic history during some of the most precarious days of the Cold War to explain its contemporary strategic choices and logic in the midst of great-power rivalries in the Southeast Asia region. The dual practice of selective alignment and strategic ambiguity by Malaysia, used effectively during the Cold War, continues to drive its foreign relations today and makes perfect strategic sense.

Acknowledgments

The author conveys his appreciation to the Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Oxford for hosting him as a visiting research fellow (2015-2016) and his mentor Associate Professor Dr. Todd H. Hall for his valuable advice and guidance throughout his stay there.

Funding

The author expresses his gratitude to the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education and the National Defence University of Malaysia for a generous Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS/1/2015/SS02/UPNM/02/1) that enabled him to research on this subject within the wider scope of Eastern and Western ways of warfare. Nonetheless, the views expressed in this article are entirely the author's own.

Notes on contributor

Adam Leong Kok Wey ([email protected]) is an associate professor in strategic studies at the National Defence University of Malaysia. He has held visiting research fellowships at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Oxford (2015–2016), and at University of New South Wales's International Relations Program (2014). He holds a PhD in strategic studies from the University of Reading and his most recent book is Killing the Enemy! Assassination Operations during World War II (London: IB Tauris, 2015).

Notes

1. Manuel Mogato, “ASEAN Gives Beijing a Pass on South China Sea Dispute, Cites Improving Cooperation,” Reuters, April 30, 2017, /www.reuters.com/article/us-asean-summit-idUSKBN17W02E (accessed April 29, 2017); and Rahul Mishra, “Storm Clouds Gathering in the South China Sea,” East Asia Forum, July 30, 2016, www.eastasiaforum.org/2016/07/30/storm-clouds-gathering-in-the-south-china-sea/ (accessed August 5, 2016).

2. Xuan Loc Doan, ‘China Appears to Be More Aggressive after the South China Sea Ruling,” Asia Times, August 10, 2016, atimes.com/2016/08/china-appears-to-be-more-aggressive-after-the-south-china-sea-ruling/ (accessed September 10, 2016). See also Dean Cheng, “South China Sea after the Tribunal Ruling: Where Do We Go from Here?” The Heritage Foundation, July 20, 2016, www.heritage.org/research/commentary/2016/7/south-china-sea-after-the-tribunal-ruling (accessed September 10, 2016).

3. Hannah Beech, “What a Retracted Statement Says about China's Growing Power in the South China Sea,” Time, June 15, 2016, time.com/4369660/asean-south-china-sea-statement/ (accessed September 10, 2016.

4. Rozanna Latif, “Southeast Asian Countries Retract Statement Expressing Concerns on South China Sea,” Reuters, June 15, 2016, www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-asean-idUSKCN0Z10KX (accessed September 12, 2016).

5. Peter Boyce, Malaysia and Singapore in International Diplomacy: Documents and Commentaries (Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1968), 37.

6. J. M. Gullick, Malaysia and Its Neighbours (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967), 97.

7. Since Malaya is not part of SEATO, the British strategic reserve forces can only be mobilized in support of SEATO with Malaya's approval. See ibid., 98.

8. Adam Leong Kok Wey, “A Confrontation Worthy of Our Remembrance,” The Star, September 6, 2016, www.thestar.com.my/opinion/letters/2016/09/06/a-confrontation-worthy-of-our-remembrance/ (accessed September 6, 2016).

9. Adam Leong Kok Wey, “The War that Gave Birth to ASEAN,” The Diplomat, September 9, 2016, thediplomat.com/2016/09/the-war-that-gave-birth-to-asean/ (accessed September 9, 2016).

10. Boyce, Malaysia and Singapore, 153.

11. For succinct analyses of nonalignment, see A. W. Singham and Shirley Hune, Non-Alignment in an Age of Alignments (London: Zed Books, 1986); and John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War (London: Penguin, 2005), 124–28. For an excellent evaluation of the Soviet Union's relationship with nonalignment, see Roy Allison, The Soviet Union and the Strategy of Non-Alignment in the Third World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). For an exemplary work about a small state and nonalignment, see Assassi Lassassi, Non-Alignment and Algerian Foreign Policy (Aldershot: Gower, 1988).

12. Carlyle A. Thayer, “The Five Power Defence Arrangements: Exercises and Regional Security, 2004-10,” Ian Storey, Ralf Emmers and Daljit Singh, editors, Five Power Defence Arrangements at Forty (Singapore: ISEAS, 2011), 51–67.

13. Robert Ayson, ”Australasian Security,” Robert Ayson and Desmond Ball, Strategy and Security in the Asia–Pacific (Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, 2006), 245.

14. See Kenneth N. Waltz, Theory of International Politics (Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 1979), 126; Stephen M. Walt, “Alliance Formation and the Balance of World Power,” International Security 9, no. 4, 1985): 3–43; and Randall Schweller, “Bandwagoning for Profit: Bringing the Revisionist State Back In,” International Security 19, no. 1 (1994): 72–107. See also Stephen M. Walt, The Origins of Alliances (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1987), 148–80.

15. Tee Lin Say and Intan Farhana Zainul, ‘The China Factor in Malaysia's Growth,” The Star, September 10, 2016, www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2016/09/10/the-china-factor-in-malaysias-growth/ (accessed September 17, 2016).

16. “U.S. Relations with Malaysia,” Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, U.S. Department of State, February 25, 2016, www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2777.htm (accessed September 17, 2016).

17. As for China, both Malaysia and China just had their first joint military exercise in 2015. “China, Malaysia Start Joint Military Exercise,” The Straits Times, September 19, 2015, www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/china-malaysia-start-joint-military-exercise (accessed September 18, 2016).

18. David Nakamura, “In Hawaii, Obama Golfs with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak,” The Washington Post, December 24, 2014, www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2014/12/24/in-hawaii-obama-golfs-with-malaysian-prime-minister-najib-razak/ (accessed September 18, 2016).

19. See Ann Capling and John Ravenhill, “Multilateralising Regionalism: What Role for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement?” The Pacific Review 24, no. 5 (2011): 553–75.

20. “Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, Indonesia, 24 February 1976,” Association of South East Asian Nations, asean.org/treaty-amity-cooperation-southeast-asia-indonesia-24-february-1976/ (accessed September 18, 2016).

21. “Disputes—International,” The World Factbook 2013–2014 (Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2013), www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2070.html (accessed September 18, 2016).

22. Sebastien Roblin, ‘Ukraine's Tough T-84 Oplot-M Tank Won't Fight Russia (and Is Being Sold to Thailand?),” The National Interest, September 23, 2016, nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/ukraines-tough-t-84-oplot-m-tank-wont-fight-russia-being-17817?page=2 (accessed September 25, 2016).

23. “Duterte Set to Pursue Sabah Claim,” The Star, June 2, 2016, www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/06/02/duterte-set-to-pursue-sabah-claim/ (accessed September 18, 2016).

24. For example, see Eric Teo Chu Cheow, “Indonesia's Open Door Ushers in Political Islam,” Asia Times Online, February 25, 2005, www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/GB25Ae04.html (accessed September 18, 2016).

25. See Luc Verley, ”The Kra-Canal Project,” International Institute of Marine Surveying, January 14, 2015, www.iims.org.uk/kra-canal-project/ (accessed September 18, 2016).

26. Richard A. Bitzinger, “China's Military Is Getting Strong (So Why Aren't Chinese Weapons Selling?),” The National Interest, September 17, 2016, nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/chinas-military-getting-strong-so-why-arent-chinese-weapons-17746 (accessed September 17, 2016).

27. Benjamin Haas, ‘No Access: Rex Tillerson Sets Collision Course with Beijing in South China Sea,” The Guardian, January 12, 2017, www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/12/no-access-rex-tillerson-sets-collision-course-beijing-south-china-sea (accessed February 9, 2017).

28. Ylan Q. Mui, “President Trump Signs Order to Withdraw from Trans-Pacific Partnership,” The Washington Post, January 23, 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/01/23/president-trump-signs-order-to-withdraw-from-transpacific-partnership/?utm_term=.710816ac10a1 (accessed February 9, 2017). See also Donald J. Trump, “Job-Killing Trans-Pacific Partnership Must be Stopped,” USA Today, March 14, 2016, www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/03/14/donald-trump-tpp-trade-american-manufacturing-jobs-workers-column/81728584/ (accessed September 18, 2016); and Dan Merica and Eric Bradner, “Hillary Clinton Comes out against TPP Trade Deal,” CNN Politics, October 7, 2015, edition.cnn.com/2015/10/07/politics/hillary-clinton-opposes-tpp/index.html (accessed September 18, 2016).

29. “M'sian, Chinese Firms Sign Agreements Worth RM144bil,” The Star, November 1, 2016, www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2016/11/01/malaysian-and-chinese-firms-sign-14-agreements-worth-rm144bil/#gO2A5-HYzsKSFaJDV.99 (accessed February 9, 2017).

30. For an excellent overview of Malaysia's foreign policy decision making, see Johan Saravanamuttu, Malaysia's Foreign Policy: The First Fifty Years (Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, 2010).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adam Leong Kok Wey

Adam Leong Kok Wey ([email protected]) is an associate professor in strategic studies at the National Defence University of Malaysia. He has held visiting research fellowships at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Oxford (2015–2016), and at University of New South Wales's International Relations Program (2014). He holds a PhD in strategic studies from the University of Reading and his most recent book is Killing the Enemy! Assassination Operations during World War II (London: IB Tauris, 2015).