Cheng-Chwee KUIK

National University of Malaysia, School of History, Politics, and Strategy, Faculty Member

Followers

333

Following

Co-authors

Public Views

Cheng-Chwee KUIK is an associate professor at the Strategic Studies and International Relations Program at the National University of Malaysia (UKM), and concurrently an associate fellow at the Institute of China Studies at the University of Malaya (UM). He is the co-founder and co-convener of the East Asian International Relations (EAIR) Caucus, a research platform for exchange, engagement, and empowerment among foreign affairs professionals in Malaysia. Dr. Kuik is an adjunct lecturer at the Malaysian Armed Forces Defense College (under Ministry of Defense) and the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations (under Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Previously he was a postdoctoral research associate at the Princeton-Harvard “China and the World” Program (CWP) and a visiting research fellow at Oxford's Department of Politics and International Relations. Dr. Kuik’s research concentrates on weaker states’ foreign policy behavior, state alignment choices, regional multilateralism, East Asian security, China-ASEAN relations, and Malaysia’s external policy. His publications have appeared in peer-reviewed journals as well as edited books. Cheng-Chwee’s essay “The Essence of Hedging” was awarded the biennial 2009 Michael Leifer Memorial Prize by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies for the best article published in any of the three ISEAS journals. He is a co-editor (with Alice Ba and Sueo Sudo) of Institutionalizing East Asia (Routledge 2016). His current projects include: hedging in international relations, ASEAN states’ responses to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (with Lee Jones), and the politics of China-related railroad projects in Southeast Asia (with David Lampton and Selina Ho). Cheng-Chwee serves on the editorial boards/ committee of Contemporary Southeast Asia, Australian Journal of International Affairs, Asian Perspective, and Routledge’s “IR Theory and Practice in Asia” Book Series. He holds an M.Litt. from the University of St. Andrews, and a PhD from the Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He can be contacted at [email protected]
Address: Strategic Studies and International Relations (SSIR) Program,
School of History, Politics and Strategy (PPSPS), FSSK
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM)
43600 Bangi, Malaysia

less

Timur Dadabaev

University of Tsukuba

Abd Rahman Ahlan

International Islamic University Malaysia

David Seamon

Kansas State University

Armando Marques-Guedes

UNL - New University of Lisbon

Narek S. Galstyan Նարեկ Ս. Գալստյան

Yerevan State University

George Lawson

The Australian National University

Thongchai Winichakul ธงชัย วินิจจะกูล

University of Wisconsin-Madison

Wolfgang Behr

University of Zurich, Switzerland

António Raimundo

Universidade do Minho

Andrea Acri

Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes

InterestsView All (6)

Uploads

Papers by Cheng-Chwee KUIK

The State of the Discipline: How Far Along Are We in Developing an IR Theory Based on Southeast Asia’s Experiences

International studies perspectives, Jun 19, 2024

ASEANs dialogue mechanisms: institutionalising ASEAN centrality

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, May 23, 2023

Peranan ASEAN dalam Kesalinghubungan Pengangkutan Rel di Asia: Evolusi, Faktor dan Prospek (ASEAN’s role in rail connectivity in Asia: Evolution, factors and prospects)

Geografia: Malaysian journal of society and space, May 29, 2018

Pengkritik biasanya menggambarkan 'ASEAN Way' sebagai proses yang lembap dalam mempromosi integra... more Pengkritik biasanya menggambarkan 'ASEAN Way' sebagai proses yang lembap dalam mempromosi integrasi serantau. Kritikan tersebut telah membawa kepada persoalan berhubung dengan peranan ASEAN dalam prospek kesalinghubungan fizikal serantau. Setakat ini memang terdapat kekurangan kajian ekonomi politik berkenaan dengan peranan ASEAN dalam perkembangan kesalinghubungan rel serantau di Asia. Oleh itu, kajian ini bertujuan memenuhi lompang penyelidikan tersebut. Artikel ini bermula dengan penyingkapan sejarah asal-usul perkembangan jaringan keretapi merentasi Asia sejak zaman imperialisme bagi mengkaji evolusi dan pelbagai faktor yang mempengaruhi perkembangan kesalinghubungan pengangkutan rel di rantau tersebut. Berdasarkan data sekunder berkenaan perkembangan rangkaian keretapi di Asia, analisis menunjukkan bahawa faktor ekonomi merupakan pendorong utama bagi setiap fasa perkembangan jaringan rel di rantau tersebut. Faktor tersebut bertambah penting berikutan dengan peningkatan penglibatan Asia dalam rangkaian pengeluaran global serta peningkatan perdagangan intra-ASEAN dan perdagangan dengan rantau lain sejak 1990-an. Hasil kajian mendapati bahawa kesalinghubungan pengangkutan rel di Asia berkembang mengikut konteks ekonomi politik rantau tersebut tanpa mengikut acuan institusi Kesatuan Eropah. Pelaksanaan polisi adalah terikat dengan perundangan Kesatuan Eropah. Pendekatan ASEAN yang berasaskan persefahaman dan autonomi nasional memberi fleksibiliti kepada negara-negara anggota ASEAN dalam pelaksanaan kesalinghubungan. Namun demikian, potensi ekonomi yang tinggi telah meningkatkan kehendak politik dan komitmen pemimpin-pemimpin ASEAN bagi memastikan kelancaran pelaksanaan jaringan rel Trans-Asian walaupun terdapat beberapa halangan dan masalah daripada segi politik dan geografi/teknikal. Justeru, prospek perkembangan jaringan TAR adalah cerah dengan gabungan peranan ASEAN, initiatif China dan Jepun melalui Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity, Belt and Road Initiative dan Partnership for Quality Infrastructure, di samping bantuan teknikal dan kewangan daripada organisasi antarabangsa lain.

Download

Institutionalizing East Asia

Part 1: Evolution of Inter-state Cooperation 1. Institutionalization of Southeast Asian: ASEAN an... more Part 1: Evolution of Inter-state Cooperation 1. Institutionalization of Southeast Asian: ASEAN and ASEAN Centrality Alice D. Ba 2. The Institutionalization of 'East Asian' Regionalism: The Critical Cases of ASEAN Plus Three amd East Asia Summit Md Nasrudin Md Akhir and Sueo Sudo Part 2: Domains of East Asian Cooperation 3. Institutionalization of Economic Cooperation in East Asia Sueo Sudo and Tham Siew Yean 4. Institutionalization of Security Cooperation in East Asia Kuik Cheng-Chwee 5. Institutionalization of Disaster Management in Southeast Asia Tavida Kamolvej 6. ASEAN's (Non-) Role in Managing Ehtnic Conflicts in Southeast Asia: Obstacles to Institutionalization Chanintira na Thalang and Pinn Siraprapasiri Part 3: Levels of Cooperation 7. Institutionalization of Sub-Regional Cooperation: The Case of the Greater Mekong Sub-region Nguyen Quoc Viet 8. Institutionalization of Inter-Regional Cooperation: The Case of ASEM and FEALAC Yulius P. Hermawan 9. Conclusion: Themes and Prospects Alice D. Ba, Kuik Cheng-Chwee and Sueo Sudo

Malaysia’s Relations with the United States and China: Asymmetries (and Anxieties) Amplified

Deference and Defiance in Malaysia's China Policy: Determinants of a Dualistic Diplomacy – ADDENDUM

International Journal of Asian Studies, May 15, 2023

“Hedging” di Laut China Selatan: Analisis Tindakan Negara-Negara Asia Tenggara (Hedging In The South China Sea: Analyzing Southeast Asian States’ Policy Actions)

Jebat: Malaysian Journal of History, Politics & Strategic Studies, Dec 7, 2020

Interlude: Locating Host-Country Agency and Hedging in Infrastructure Cooperation

Bristol University Press eBooks, Sep 27, 2022

Malaysian conceptions of international order: paradoxes of small-state pragmatism

International Affairs

Why do weaker states perceive the liberal international order (LIO) with ambivalence? This articl... more Why do weaker states perceive the liberal international order (LIO) with ambivalence? This article argues that in the case of small states like Malaysia, historical memories, structural realities and domestic imperatives combine to explain their conceptions of and responses to the LIO. The article traces the features and unpacks the factors underpinning the paradoxes of small-state pragmatism vis-à-vis international order: a) rejecting power hierarchy but recognizing (and leveraging) power asymmetry; b) acknowledging its smallness but actively punching above its weight whenever possible; and c) promoting co-existence through principled contradictions. Such paradoxical pragmatism is quintessentially an act of hedging aimed at mitigating and off-setting multiple risks amid increasing uncertainties. This article makes three contributions. First, it contributes to the literature on international order by presenting a small-state perspective on the LIO, highlighting that small-state resp...

Southeast Asian Responses to U.S.-China Tech Competition: Hedging and Economy-Security Tradeoffs

Journal of Chinese political science/Chinese journal of political science, Feb 6, 2024

Hedging via Institutions: ASEAN-led Multilateralism in the Age of the Indo-Pacific

Asian journal of peacebuilding, Nov 30, 2022

Hedging in Non-Traditional Security: The Case of Vietnam’s Disaster Response Cooperation

The Chinese Journal of International Politics

Although much has been written on hedging in traditional security, few studies have focused on he... more Although much has been written on hedging in traditional security, few studies have focused on hedging in the non-traditional security (NTS) domains. This essay examines NTS hedging through the case of Vietnam’s disaster response cooperation with the USA and with China. “Hedging” is insurance-seeking behaviour, characterised by avoidance of irrevocable commitment, adoption of impartial and inclusive diversification, and the pursuit of prudent contradictions—all aimed at offsetting risks and cultivating a fallback position. We argue that it is Vietnam’s elite-defined strategic considerations and functional needs amid uncertainty that both drive and constrain its hedging approach to disaster management cooperation with the competing powers—China and the USA. While not fully aligning with either power, Vietnam has sought closer cooperation with both, with different objectives in mind: engaging China to maintain a good relationship, while engaging the USA to enhance its capabilities. Th...

Explaining the Contradiction in China’s South China Sea Policy: Structural Drivers and Domestic Imperatives

China: An International Journal

China’s South China Sea policy in recent years has been marked by a mix of maritime assertiveness... more China’s South China Sea policy in recent years has been marked by a mix of maritime assertiveness and economic-diplomatic inducement. This article argues that this contradiction is a result of both structural drivers and domestic imperatives. Structurally, the perceived opportunity after the global financial crisis and later, the perceived risk of a US-led encirclement after Obama’s “rebalancing to Asia” strategy have both pushed China to take a more hard-line approach to maritime disputes. However, the necessity to avert regional backlash has, on the other hand, compelled Beijing to counteract its maritime moves with active economic and diplomatic statecraft to reassure its smaller neighbours, albeit with mixed effects. Domestically, the contradiction is rooted in the ruling Communist Party of China elites’ needs to strike a balance between their different pathways of legitimation: while nationalist legitimation necessitates China to assert its sovereign rights, performance legitimation requires it to pursue a cooperative regional strategy via the “Belt and Road Initiative” so as to preserve a stable and productive environment needed for sustained domestic growth.

Brunei: Multifaceted Survival Strategies of a Small State

Asian Security Handbook, 2016

Shades of grey: riskification and hedging in the Indo-Pacific

The Pacific Review

Deference and defiance in Malaysia's China policy: determinants of a dualistic diplomacy

International Journal of Asian Studies

When do smaller states defer to and when do they defy stronger powers? How and why? This article ... more When do smaller states defer to and when do they defy stronger powers? How and why? This article traces and explains the changing patterns of deference and defiance in Malaysia's China policy. There are three findings. First, deference and defiance are essential elements in all inter-state relations, especially asymmetric ones. The greater the power asymmetry, the greater the inclination to defer and defy. Second, states often pursue defiance and deference concurrently and selectively, with approaches adapted in accordance with changing external and internal conditions. The concurrent adoption of the two behaviors often manifest in hedging, an insurance-seeking policy aimed at offsetting multiple risks by counteracting the effects of the other behavior: deference without defiance risks subservience and dependency; defiance without deference invites hostility and confrontation. Third, the specific patterns and proportions of the deference–defiance mix are attributable more to dom...

Malaysia and Northeast Asia: What Drives Small-State Forward Diplomacy?

Issues & Studies

This paper adopts a two-level model to explain Malaysia’s forward diplomacy toward the Northeast ... more This paper adopts a two-level model to explain Malaysia’s forward diplomacy toward the Northeast Asian states, the larger economies beyond its immediate neighborhood of Southeast Asia. We contend that while such structural conditions as power dynamics drive and constrain the smaller state’s agency toward the Northeast Asian nations, their effects are filtered by domestic politics, specifically the ruling elite’s pathways of legitimation. The findings highlight that while diplomacy is almost always motivated by the imperatives of immediate reality and identity, there is a different genre of driver, that of nurtured necessity. This paper illustrates how Malaysia’s outlook toward the Northeast Asian states—and its resulting active and anticipatory diplomacy—has been more “discovered” than determined and why such diplomacy has been driven more by the elite’s domestic political needs than the idiosyncrasies of its leaders.

Mapping Malaysian Middlepowership: Domestic and Structural Sources of Small-State Activism

Attempts to define middlepowership mostly focus on three attributes: the relative size, capabilit... more Attempts to define middlepowership mostly focus on three attributes: the relative size, capability, and impact of a sovereign state. We contend that a more important attribute in distinguishing a middle power from typical small states is activism, i.e. a persistent and concerted effort to put forward, promote, and institutionalize an actionable initiative – or a series of initiatives – into an international outcome involving other state(s) as partner(s). The greater the impact and sustainability of the outcome (e.g. an institutionalized cooperation with a growing number of partnering states, and widening scope of collaboration), the greater the middlepowership. This essay unpacks Malaysia’s middlepowership – as an instance of Lilliputian survival strategy – by tracing the state’s activism in promoting an array of diplomatic, development, and defence initiatives around – and beyond – Southeast Asia over the past decades. We offer a Neoclassical Realist explanation, arguing that the m...

“Hedging” di Laut China Selatan: analisis tindakan negara-negara Asia Tenggara

Pengurusan pertikaian di Laut China Selatan mesti mengambil kira perilaku “hedging” negara serant... more Pengurusan pertikaian di Laut China Selatan mesti mengambil kira perilaku “hedging” negara serantau. Hedging adalah pendirian tidak menyebelahi mana-mana pihak yang terlibat dalam perlumbaan kuasa, yang digandingi pelbagai tindakan yang bertentangan untuk offset risiko yang mungkin muncul, dan diiringi usaha berterusan bagi menyediakan ruang contingency atau jalan keluar jika wujud sesuatu kebuntuan. Kecenderungan hedging seperti ini bukan hanya dipamerkan oleh negara penuntut, bahkan oleh negara bukan penuntut. Sebenarnya, tindakan assertif China yang kian meningkat, dan strategi Indo-Pasifik oleh A.S. yang kelihatan terumbang-ambing, menyebabkan negara-negara Asia Tenggara mengelakkan “balancing” (menjalin pakatan dengan A.S. bagi mengimbangi China); dan tiada satu pun negara kecil di rantau ini yang memilih “bandwagoning” (menerima hubungan secara berhierarki dengan China demi keuntungan, walaupun ini menjejaskan autonomi serta lain-lain kepentingan nasionalnya). Sebaliknya, mere...

Download

Malaysia's Resilient (but Ambiguous) Partnership with the United States: The Dilemmas of Smaller States in the Indo-Pacific Era

Asia Policy, 2021

The State of the Discipline: How Far Along Are We in Developing an IR Theory Based on Southeast Asia’s Experiences

International studies perspectives, Jun 19, 2024

ASEANs dialogue mechanisms: institutionalising ASEAN centrality

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks, May 23, 2023

Peranan ASEAN dalam Kesalinghubungan Pengangkutan Rel di Asia: Evolusi, Faktor dan Prospek (ASEAN’s role in rail connectivity in Asia: Evolution, factors and prospects)

Geografia: Malaysian journal of society and space, May 29, 2018

Download

Institutionalizing East Asia

Malaysia’s Relations with the United States and China: Asymmetries (and Anxieties) Amplified

Deference and Defiance in Malaysia's China Policy: Determinants of a Dualistic Diplomacy – ADDENDUM

International Journal of Asian Studies, May 15, 2023

“Hedging” di Laut China Selatan: Analisis Tindakan Negara-Negara Asia Tenggara (Hedging In The South China Sea: Analyzing Southeast Asian States’ Policy Actions)

Jebat: Malaysian Journal of History, Politics & Strategic Studies, Dec 7, 2020

Interlude: Locating Host-Country Agency and Hedging in Infrastructure Cooperation

Bristol University Press eBooks, Sep 27, 2022

Malaysian conceptions of international order: paradoxes of small-state pragmatism

International Affairs

Southeast Asian Responses to U.S.-China Tech Competition: Hedging and Economy-Security Tradeoffs

Journal of Chinese political science/Chinese journal of political science, Feb 6, 2024

Hedging via Institutions: ASEAN-led Multilateralism in the Age of the Indo-Pacific

Asian journal of peacebuilding, Nov 30, 2022

Hedging in Non-Traditional Security: The Case of Vietnam’s Disaster Response Cooperation

The Chinese Journal of International Politics

Explaining the Contradiction in China’s South China Sea Policy: Structural Drivers and Domestic Imperatives

China: An International Journal

Brunei: Multifaceted Survival Strategies of a Small State

Asian Security Handbook, 2016

Shades of grey: riskification and hedging in the Indo-Pacific

The Pacific Review

Deference and defiance in Malaysia's China policy: determinants of a dualistic diplomacy

International Journal of Asian Studies

Malaysia and Northeast Asia: What Drives Small-State Forward Diplomacy?

Issues & Studies

Mapping Malaysian Middlepowership: Domestic and Structural Sources of Small-State Activism

“Hedging” di Laut China Selatan: analisis tindakan negara-negara Asia Tenggara

Download

Malaysia's Resilient (but Ambiguous) Partnership with the United States: The Dilemmas of Smaller States in the Indo-Pacific Era

Asia Policy, 2021

(With Ngeow Chow Bing) "Lee Poh Ping and the Study of East Asian International Relations in Malaysia: Recurring Themes and Enduring Insights", in 'Rising China, Resilient Japan, Resourceful ASEAN: Selected Writings of Lee Poh Ping on East Asian International Relations' (ISBN: 9789672165187).

Download

(With Alice D. Ba) "Southeast Asia and China: Engagement and Constrainment" in Alice D. Ba & Mark Beeson, eds., 'Contemporary Southeast Asia: The Politics of Change, Contestation, and Adaptation', 3rd edition (London: Palgrave 2018), pp.229-247

Contemporary Southeast Asia: The Politics of Change, Contestation, and Adaptation, 3rd Edition, 2018

Download

Institutionalizing East Asia: Mapping and Reconfiguring Regional Cooperation

by Alice Ba and Cheng-Chwee KUIK

Cheng-Chwee KUIK

Related Authors

Uploads

Papers by Cheng-Chwee KUIK

Log In