ASEAN's Institutional Strategic Partnerships in the Indo-Pacific

How has ASEAN developed its strategic relationships with external partners in the Indo-Pacific through strategic partnerships (SPs) and comprehensive strategic partnerships (CSPs) since the end of the Cold War, and what strategic functions do these statuses serve? This paper focuses on institution-based SPs and develops a typology of institutional strategic partnerships (ISPs), arguing that their strategic functions vary across four forms: functional enhancement, functional maintenance, norm/rule-making, and strategic signalling. Through these different ISP types, ASEAN has managed its relations with external actors in distinct ways – pursuing functional enhancement with South Korea and India, norm/rule-making with China and Japan, and strategic signalling with traditional partners such as Australia and Canada, and great powers, namely, the United States and Russia. However, as ISP status proliferates, its functional benefits diminish, producing marginal returns and eroding overall utility.