Abstract
This thesis examines the formation of Taiwan’s foreign policy towards Southeast Asia during Ma Ying-jeou’s two-term (2008-2016) and Tsai Ing-wen’s first-term (2016-2020) presidencies.While Ma and Tsai have employed different approaches to China – the former implemented more elements of bandwagoning, whilst the latter has moved towards a balancing posture – both administrations have allocated a significant amount of diplomatic resources to fostering economic connectivity with the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Why does Taiwan consistently endeavour to forge economic linkages with Southeast Asia despite Ma and Tsai’s different strategic approaches to China? To what extent do unit-level factors interfere between systemic forces and the formulation of Ma and Tsai’s foreign policy towards Southeast Asia?
This research applies a neoclassical realist framework to investigate the systemic and unit-level forces that shaped Taiwan’s foreign policy towards Southeast Asia between 2008 and 2020. The research focuses on three major categories of Taiwan’s economic engagement with ASEAN countries – trade and investment, tourism, and higher education – through the lens of neoclassical realism. The principal hypothesis posits that Taiwan’s foreign policy towards Southeast Asia consistently focuses on economic hedging. While China’s growing influence in Southeast Asia, enhanced US attention to ASEAN and emerging East Asian regionalism are the primary systemic forces determining the broad contours of Taiwan’s Southeast Asia policy, such unit-level factors as leaders’ perceptions, domestic institutions and state-society relations serve as indispensable intervening variables in the transmission of structural conditions to foreign policy choices. The research findings will help explain how the effects of systemic stimuli are filtered through the unit-level factors in shaping Taiwan’s foreign policy towards ASEAN countries at different junctures.
This thesis demonstrates the significance of Taiwan’s trade and investment, tourism, and higher education strategies towards Southeast Asia as essential components of Taiwan’s foreign policy package. Taiwan has been actively engaged with ASEAN countries, and the region is vital for Taiwan’s economic pragmatism and economic diversification approaches. Therefore, understanding the most visible and interconnected ties between Taiwan and Southeast Asia is crucial to comprehending Taiwan’s foreign policy in general.
| Date of Award | 1 Jun 2023 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Ramon Pacheco Pardo (Supervisor) & Kerry Brown (Supervisor) |