Identity and institutional thickening of Asia and the Pacific: narrating regional belonging in the foreign policy of Indonesia

Abstract

The institutionalisation and strengthening of cooperation between Asia–Pacific states has been discussed for over 30 years. While experiencing institutional thickening, assessing integration in the region highlights some obstacles to deepening cooperation such as the lack of a common identity. Multiple forms of cooperation affect regional identity formation, but the question of how states explain belonging to different platforms of cooperation within one region remains neglected. If an actor initiates and contributes to multiple forms of cooperation, what narratives are employed, and what factors determine this discursive approach? By applying the concept of strategic narratives, I analyse how an understanding of a region changes with different platforms of cooperation involving the Asia–Pacific and Indo-Pacific, and I offer an explanation of discursive politics drawing from foreign policy analysis. I argue that variation in a state’s narratives display coherency if they are complementary and that a state’s discursive approach can be explained through three drivers: a state’s self-conception, perception of regional changes, and patterns of regional institutionalisation. The arguments are substantiated by an analysis of Indonesia’s regional engagement and narratives thereof.