ALT ABSTRACT This article presents the Adaptive Association Model (AAM) to explain how non-sovereign polities in free association can establish international legal personality and diplomatic agency in the absence of full statehood or United Nations membership. Utilising the Cook Islands and Niue as case studies, it delineates four mechanisms (selective engagement, contextual sovereignty, institutional pragmatism, and systemic adaptability) through which functional sovereignty manifests. The article places the AAM within three domains of international relations scholarship: non-standard sovereignty, small states and partial independence, and performative approaches to statehood. It contends that free association, when it involves authentic transfers of sovereign competencies and facilitates independent institutional participation, represents a sustainable and legitimate form of post-colonial self-determination rather than a temporary deviation. The New Caledonian case exemplifies a negative

ALT ABSTRACT This discussion examines the evolving posture of the United States in the Middle East, focusing on the tension between deterrence and disengagement that increasingly defines its strategic ambiguity. It builds on the recent scholarly work and the policymaking discourse to posit that the current American policy is based on having a complicated combination of forward military presence, a periodically coercive approach, diplomatic signalling, and constantly proclaiming strategic retrenchment. This ambiguity is no longer evident as an intensely tailored doctrine, as in the context of deep Iran-Israel confrontation, maritime insecurity, and proxy warfare over the region, but rather as a structural provision of US strength. According to the latest studies of Gulf politics, force posture in CENTCOM, and the post-2025 Iran-Israel crisis, the United States has been deeply entrenched in regional security despite the seeming lesser influence on regional outcomes as compared to previous ti

ALT ABSTRACT This paper examines how citizens in asymmetric relationships evaluate powerful states that simultaneously present economic opportunities and strategic risks. Focusing on the Philippines, we distinguish between perceptions of dependability, understood as expectations of consistent behaviour, and trust, defined as beliefs about long-term intentions under uncertainty. Drawing on seven waves of nationally representative survey conducted between early 2023 and mid-2024, we argue that these evaluations are anchored in domestic foreign policy performance, which serves as a key interpretive lens in the absence of direct access to diplomatic processes or foreign intentions. Our findings reveal a pattern of instrumental ambivalence. Higher satisfaction with government performance is associated with lower perceptions of China's dependability but higher levels of trust in its long-term trajectory. This divergence reflects attribution to domestic competence alongside greater willingness to

ALT ABSTRACT How do weaker states in an asymmetric alliance simultaneously manage the risks of entrapment and abandonment? Research on alliance management largely focuses on how stronger states manage entrapment while weaker states address abandonment. Such arguments reflect the military imbalance and the relative dependence between asymmetric allies. However, weaker allies can fear both entrapment and abandonment simultaneously when the former threatens their interests and security. To understand how they navigate the competing risks within the alliance, we argue that weaker allies would cautiously act as conflict managers by coordinating with allies while advancing peaceful alternatives, garnering support from the international community, and offering inducements to the adversary to incentivize negotiations. We demonstrate our argument by analyzing South Korea's behaviours throughout three crises involving the US and North Korea in the post-Cold War era. We conclude with broader theoreti

ALT ABSTRACT While voting cohesion within regional organisations (ROs) has been the subject of many papers, particularly regarding ASEAN and the EU, studies frequently overlook the broader regional context. However, to understand if foreign policy coordination is successful, it is important to know if voting cohesion within the region is already high due to common regional affinities and interests, or if it is indeed due to successful foreign policy coordination. This paper aims to answer this question by comparing voting cohesion of six ROs, ASEAN, CARICOM, EU, AL, Mercosur, and SAARC to each other as well as their cohesion when including regional non-member states. In doing so, it finds that the gap between voting cohesion of the AL and the EU and their respective regions is widest, while it is negligible concerning the CARICOM and Mercosur. It also brings forth further evidence for successful coordination in the EU and the AL in the face of divisive issues and enlargement and shows how

ALT ABSTRACT Foreign aid is a vital tool for Chinese diplomacy. Since President Xi Jinping took office, the Chinese government has changed its diplomatic paradigm. Nevertheless, existing studies have not thoroughly explored how foreign aid's role in Chinese diplomacy has evolved during Xi's presidency. This paper uses neoclassical realism in international relations theory to analyse and clarify these shifts. It finds that since 2013, China has used foreign aid to bolster the Belt and Road Initiative, promote a transformation toward international development cooperation, and align with the Global Development Initiative, responding to systemic stimuli and perceived threats. These results highlight the interrelated and evolving relationship between foreign aid and Chinese diplomacy in the Xi era, with foreign aid adjusting to meet the changing needs and goals of Chinese diplomacy. These findings indicate that adopting a dynamic perspective-integrating systemic and state-level variables—is nec

ALT Graphic showing the last 4 sets of download metrics for Q1, which are 40,243 downloads in Q1 of 2023; 49,934 in Q1 of 2025; 79,555 for Q1 of 2025; and 140,622 for Q1 of 2026.

ALT ABSTRACT The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda has provided a gendered governance framework for conflict prevention and international peacebuilding for the last twenty-five years. Under the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan, women and girls face 'gender apartheid, including bans on education and employment, exclusion from public spaces, and widespread gender-based violence. This discussion presents data on the international community's interactions with the Taliban collected across three phases from February 2020 to October 2025. The data covers a range of peace processes and governance issues, highlighting how the international community gradually eased out of issues related to Afghan women and their rights, which has been a normative commitment of the international community. While the WPS norms currently face global challenges, research shows that gender-inclusive policies increasingly improve governance, peace, and stability. Recommitting to the WPS agenda in Afghanistan offers..

ALT ABSTRACT The rise of geoeconomics has turned international trade into an arena of interstate competition. This study analyses why Southeast Asian countries have refrained from weaponising their economic policies against other countries despite rising geoeconomic tensions globally. Drawing on the concept of comprehensive security, it argues that Southeast Asia's integration into the global economy has significantly elevated security costs and weakened institutional capacity of the state in weaponising their economic policies. This transformation makes economic coercion runs counter to the comprehensive yet inward-looking understanding of security in the region, where maintaining open and stable economic ties plays a crucial role in ensuring the survival of ruling regimes. The potential disruption to established economic ties risks undermining the economic performance that has become the primary source of political legitimacy and support from political coalitions of the ruling leaders, w

ALT ABSTRACT This article examines the validity of characterising contemporary Japanese foreign policy as ‘proactive’ by analysing Tokyo’s recalibration towards North Korea following the 2018 US – North Korea Singapore Summit. While recent scholarship often highlights Japan’s increased diplomatic activism and institutional centralisation under Shinzo Abe as evidence of foreign policy ‘proactivity’, this study argues that Japan’s foreign policy remains fundamentally constrained by its security dependence on the United States. By process-tracing Japan’s abrupt abandonment of its long-standing ‘abduction-first’ precondition in response to Washington’s diplomatic pivot, the article demonstrates how visible activism can be driven by a structural need to preserve alliance cohesion and avoid marginalisation. The findings suggest that the proactive – reactive dichotomy is an epistemological barrier that obscures the alliance-embedded character of Japan’s strategic agency. The study contends that