Tug’o War: Vietnam’s Strategy for Great Powers in Southeast Asia

This paper will answer the question of the viability of Vietnam’s strategy for survival. How sustainable is the enmeshment and balancing strategy? Due to its geopolitical position, Vietnam has found itself on a precipice: almost all significant and regional powers find themselves seeking a partnership with Vietnam. Vietnam has also pursued these partnerships, hoping to stabilize and strengthen the state’s position. It is all the more important due to rising tensions in the South China Sea. Independence and survival are overreaching themes of Vietnamese foreign policy. The main strategy is for great and regional powers to balance each other out in the region, allowing Vietnam the greatest possible decision-making freedom. There is however a question of the viability of that balancing strategy. Certain strategic partnerships, like those with India, Japan, or the US, have been developed, but only to a degree, and their viability has yet to be tested. It is possible that this course of action, calculated to balance China’s influence in the region, might backfire in the end, returning the region to the Chinese sphere of influence as predicted by David Kang.