TransRWP - Transregionalism in World Politics

TransRWP aims to understand the emergence, dynamics and challenges of transregionalism in world politics and assess its implications to contemporary international order. 'Transregionalism' refers to a form of regional cooperation where the membership of co-operating body extends beyond one particular region, and is directed towards a specific area of cooperation, such as economic, security, or development co-operation. Transregionalism emerged after the Cold War to primarily facilitate trade liberalization and economic cooperation between different regions. However, there are also attempts to expand transregional cooperation beyond economic cooperation, such as initiatives under the umbrella of 'the Quadrilateral Security Cooperation' connecting the United States and key allies in Asia and Pacific. China has also promoted its own version of transregional cooperation by establishing ambitious connectivity projects under the banner of 'the Belt and Road Initiatives', which aims to connect Asia with other regions through a set of global development cooperation.

The emergence of these transregional cooperation projects raises important questions around the purposes of these projects, their institutional foundations, their competing dynamics and broader implications for contemporary international order. These questions are essential as we are currently witnessing the great power rivalry between the United States and China, who have initiated their own transregional cooperation projects. This developmentwould affect the regional and global stability, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, and necessitates innovative conceptual and empirical research on contemporary transregionalism in world politics. This project, therefore, aims to address this challenge. The central research questions underpinning this research are: What are the normative purposes that guide transregionalism in world politics, and how do these normative purposes shape the institutional and geopolitical dynamics of transregionalism? TransRWP focuses on two contemporary transregionalism projects in the Indo-Pacific region, namely (1) the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and (2) the Belt & Road Initiative.