Aspiration and Leadership Research of the Diffusion of Indo-Pacific

Abstract

The Indo Pacific concept (IPC) may be one of the hotspots in IR during the past decade. This ancient geographical concept was originally packaged by former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe into the so-called Free and Open Indo Pacific (FoIP). After being highly politicized, this concept has been officially adopted by Australia, the United States and India. After President Biden took office in 2020, the Indo Pacific strategy has undergone further diffusion around the world. Especially in Western democracies. By 2022, the Biden government has taken the promotion of FoIP into the primary strategic goal in the In-do-Pacific Strategy of the United States [11]. At the same time, the report emphasized that protecting the democratic values of regional allies from interference is the direction of the US efforts. Leading by values has become an important accelerator for the United States to boost the diffusion of Indo-Pacific strategy. However, It is implausible for observers to explain the global diffusion of IPC after 2020. This article adheres to the viewpoint of constructivism and holds that the IPC, as an idea, has been recognized and accepted by states with common values. When the IPC was put forward and used by states platform as an initiative, it was constructed as a blueprint of “Democratic Alliance”. The Western-dominated international order based on the values of democracy and freedom is socially, politically, and historically ‘embedded’. This article argues that the diffusion of IPC could be understood as an political aspiration. Such aspiration contains the expectation of reuniting states sharing values of western democracy and freedom.