Mechanism of Balancing Diplomacy among Middle Powers the Hedging Strategy of Indonesia under the Competition of “Free-Open Indo Pacific” and “Belt and Road Initiative”

Abstract

The competition between China and the United States is worsening in the Indo-Pacific region. With the evolution of the Indo-Pacific regional order, Southeast Asian countries find themselves at the forefront of competition. Most Southeast Asian countries face three main choices. The first choice is to support the current superpower, the United States; The second option is to cooperate with China and join the BRI initiative; The third option is a strategic hedge between China and the United States. This study focuses on the Southeast Asian region, taking Indonesia as the research object, and analyzes how Indonesia, as a middle power, adopts a hedging strategy to carry out excellent power balance diplomacy. Indonesia has adopted the “Global Maritime Fulcrum Strategy (GMF)” as the primary measure to deal with BRI and FOIP. In this paper, a literature review and case study are used to study. The first part mainly expounds on balanced diplomacy between a middle power and an major power, and the second part focuses on Indonesia as the research object. Through a case study, it analyzes the background, current policies, achievements, and significance of GMF strategy and explains the hedging strategy of Indonesia, a middle power, to balance China and the United States.