Vietnam's prudent pivot to the rules-based international order

Abstract

Abstract Vietnam's conceptualization of the international and regional orders has changed remarkably over the past decades. Previously an outsider if not a challenger of the western-crafted liberal order, Vietnam has in recent years increasingly leaned toward a rules-based international order. This article argues that the reason for Vietnam's changing perceptions about the liberal international order is largely threefold: domestic reform and modernization; deepened integration into the international political economy; as well as growing strategic concerns over great power coercion stemming from China's rise. Vietnam's pivot to the rules-based international order, however, is cautious given Hanoi's lingering worry over western intentions to undermine Vietnam's socialist orientation, the path dependence of Vietnam's relationships with its traditional partners as well as the occasional clashes between the old, conservative worldview and the new, open-minded thinking in shaping its foreign policy. As a result, Vietnam's vision for a rules-based international order emphasizes universally negotiated rules and institutions, rather than western-dominated ones, with a focus on the rules and norms promoted by the United Nations and ASEAN. Amid the current power shift, Vietnam supports an emerging multi-polar and multi-center order in which small and medium states like itself would have a bigger voice and greater agency.