Institutional Innovation from the Middle: The Strategies of Indonesia and the Philippines

This article explores the institutional innovation strategies adopted by two Southeast Asian middle powers, Indonesia and the Philippines. The four strategies under consideration are: institutional layering, institutional nesting, hybrid alignment, and value-based global anchoring. The article finds that Indonesia has primarily embraced hybrid alignment and value-based global anchoring, which are at times interlaced with institutional nesting, while showing little evidence of institutional layering. Conversely, the Philippines has focused predominantly on institutional layering, with a short-lived foray into value-based global anchoring, and limited engagement with hybrid alignment and institutional nesting. These contrasting preferences are linked to differences in their diplomatic resources and positional power, with Indonesia possessing greater capacities in both areas and the Philippines having comparatively less. Building on the well-established understanding that institutions play a crucial role in middle power diplomacy, this study seeks to offer additional insights into how differences in diplomatic capacity and positional power inform the prioritisation of middle powers’ institutional engagement strategies.