Beyond the Great-Power Clash: ASEAN’s Quiet Power in the Indo-Pacific

Name: Beyond the Great-Power Clash: ASEAN’s Quiet Power in the Indo-Pacific
Start: 2026-01-22T16:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-01-22T17:30:00+00:00

Event information

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Book Launch: Understanding International Relations in the Indo-Pacific

The Indo-Pacific is becoming one of the most contested regions in the world. Rising great-power rivalry, pressure on shipping routes, and growing uncertainty around technological and economic security all shape developments far beyond Asia. For Europe and the Netherlands, the stability of this region matters more than ever.

How are regional institutions like ASEAN responding to the fragmenting world order? Can they still function as anchors of stability? How do smaller states navigate the ambitions of larger powers? And what does this mean for countries that depend on an open and predictable international order?

Join us for this special event, that brings together a unique group of international scholars who collaborated on a new book ‘Understanding International Relations in the Indo-Pacific’. They will present their findings for the first time.

For policymakers, diplomats, researchers and students, the book launch offers a clear and timely look at forces reshaping the Indo-Pacific and the questions that will influence global politics in the years ahead.

Preliminary Agenda

15.45 doors open

16.00 brief welcome & introduction of book, topic & speakers by LAC

16.05 book conception and main arguments

16.20 brief Q&A with audience

16.30 ASEAN centrality

16.45 Q&A with audience

17.25 closing arguments

17.30 end -> networking drinks

18.15 end event

About the speaker(s)

Aleš Karmazin

Aleš Karmazin is Assistant Professor of International Politics at the Department of Asian Studies, Metropolitan University Prague. In his research, he focuses on Chinese politics, international relations in the Indo-Pacific, and the regional and global international order. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Central European Journal of International and Security Studies. His works have appeared in journals like the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Chinese Journal of International Politics, Pacific Review, European Political Science, Politics, Europe Asia Studies and others.

Michal Kolmaš

Michal Kolmaš is an Associate Professor of International Relations and the Chair of Asian Studies at the Metropolitan University Prague. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Czech Journal of International Relations (CJIR), and an Associate Editor of the Journal of International Relations and Development (JIRD). He focuses on Japanese foreign policy, social norms and global environmental politics, and has published some 20 articles in journals including Climatic Change, Policy Sciences, Global Environmental Politics, The Pacific Review, JIRD, Cambridge Review of International Affairs and many others. He was the PI or co-investigator of various grant programs including Horizon Europe and Jean Monnet schemes, and held visiting fellowship positions at Umass Boston, Ritsumeikan APU and Hokkaido University.

Guangyu Qiao-Franco

Guangyu Qiao-Franco is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Radboud University in the Netherlands, and a Senior Researcher of the ERC funded AutoNorms Project at the University of Southern Denmark. She is principally interested in China studies, ASEAN studies, international organisations, the agency of the Global South in international politics and emerging technologies. Her research leverages practice theory, norm contestation, norm diffusion and actor-network theories to interpret legal and foreign policy instruments developed by developing countries. Her work has been published in International Affairs, The Pacific Review, International Relations of the Asia Pacific, Chinese Journal of International Politics, Journal of Contemporary China, among others. She is the author of the book UN-ASEAN Coordination: Policy Transfer and Regional Cooperation Against Human Trafficking in Southeast Asia (Edward Elgar, 2023).