Small States Wield Nationalism and Lawfare to Navigate Great-Power Competition

In the face of great-power competition, countries in Southeast Asia position themselves in different ways. Some engage in balancing, while others prefer hedging. Many, however, are constrained by their lack of capabilities that limits their geopolitical options to bandwagoning. What is clear is that small states’ responses to great-power competition are typical of many in the formerly colonised world. As rule-takers, these countries acknowledge that while there is little room in initiating the creation of international orders, there are opportunities to carve out a space for themselves within those orders. While the creation of international orders is the purview and the privilege of the big and mighty, small states can and do negotiate their position within that order. They may not be the initiator, but they are complicit in perpetuating that order.