Indo-Pacific Region: The Rise of “Quad” and Future Clash of

Civilizations

Siti Malikatul Mushowwiroh and Alicia Anzani.

International Relations Departement, University of Muhammadiyah Malang

Keywords : Clash of Civilizations, Indo-Pacific, Quadrilateral Cooperations.

Abstract : The balance of power and geostrategic competition that occurs in Indo-Pacific region currently is a

reflection for the rise of China’s power which pottentially could be a new hegemonic actor in the broader

regional order. This phenomenon has led to the resurgence of Quadrilateral Cooperation (Quad) alliance,

run by the United States, India, Japan, and Australia by forming steps together in coordinating the Indo-

Pacific regional eshtablishment goals as a free, transparent, and based on international law area. The

momentum of Quad cooperation that ignore China’s membership and implicitly framed in the axis of

democracy is certainly lead to the conflict escalation, where China has gradually succeeded in using their

growing economic power as well as the strategic conditions of its military forces to spread the great

influence in Indo-Pacific geopolitics. This condition brings China is regarded as a major threat and

indirectly creates problems that lead to a ideological competition in this region. Thus, this research aims to

describe the dynamics of existing problems in Indo-Pacific region by orienting focus discussion on How is

the state of Indo-Pacific region along with the existence of Quad Cooperation and China’s response that

could trigger the occurence of clash of civilizations?. This research is a descriptive-analysis research by

using the regionalism approach and clash of civilizations theory. The research result is going to indicate that

geopolitical governance and Quad cooperation in Indo-Pacific that should have a good impact precisely

create for new conflicts within the region.

1 INTRODUCTION

The movement of global political currents that being

oriented toward the east has made the region

formerly called Asia-Pasific go through a broader

transformation in regional frames into “Indo-

Pasific”. Indo-Pacific region can be seen as a

contemporary term to describe the integration of

countries that are generally located in the continent

of Asia, and the Pacific mainland especially in the

western part. Realizing the importance to see the

geopolitical connection between the Indian Ocean

Region (IOR) and the Western Pacific Region (WP),

which can be a part of single maritime entity with

more strategic economic and security potential has

been one of the main reasons why then the

establishment of this region is intensified and

interesting to be studied deeply (The Diplomat,

2018). The formation of geo-economics along the

Indo-Pacific region is predicted to be able to

facilitate relations between countries to promote

trade activities as well as to facilitate the movement

of goods and people that can affect economic

development and certain sectors (Shankari, 2017).

While on the other hand, emerging the security

concern has basically become the primary factor

behind the existence of Indo-Pacific itself. However,

the security of the maritime sector is the main

security in this regard intends to improve the

capacity of maritime management in anticipation of

threats arising, especially with the issue of territorial

dispute in the South China Sea that has not been

resolved optimally. In this regard, the efficiency of

Indo-Pacific should be able to create a regional

framework that can facilitate the potential of this

economic and security strategy(Jeffrey D. Wilson,

2017).

Since it was first initiated by Japan prime

minister Shinzo Abe in 2007, India was the first

country to approve Japanese aspirations to bring

together the Indian and pacific oceans along with the

goal of creating freedom and prosperity within the

wider Asian region. Followed in 2010 United States

officially calls for diplomatic recognition of the

existence of the Indo-Pacific which can be seen as

an opportunity to develop its military cooperation

Mushowwiroh, S. and Anzani, A.

Indo-Paciﬁc Region: The Rise of “Quad” and Future Clash of Civilizations.

DOI: 10.5220/0010274500002309

In Proceedings of Airlangga Conference on International Relations (ACIR 2018) - Politics, Economy, and Security in Changing Indo-Paciﬁc Region, pages 151-157

ISBN: 978-989-758-493-0

151

with India in the Pacific, as well as to improve the

efficiency of global trade which at the time was

aligned with Barack Obama's policy of "Pivot to

Asia ". And in 2013 after its defense white book

was released, Australia is also certain to support the

development of the Indo-Pacific region by

recognizing the centrality and eastern orientation of

India in its regional construction (Khurana, 2017).

What is make it interesting is that when Indo-Pacific

developed very dynamically, the establishment of

Indo-Pacific region specifically directed into what is

called the new geostrategic intended to offsett the

rise of China strength and influence in the Asian

region itself. This is shown by the establishment of

cooperation in the Indo-Pacific initiated by Japan,

India, the US and Australia in the Quadrilateral

Cooperation Alliance (Quad) and exclude China

membership. Quad itself prioritizes a consolidation

of free, transparent values, enforce rules-based rules,

and respect for international law where it is still a

part of the democratic system which later became

the basis of the regional framework as well as the

goal of regional establishment (Cogan, 2017). Then

the question is why then China is seen as a threat to

the Quad in this region? and on the other side does

China also feel threated by the alliance?

Through this, some may realize that basically the

problem is the fear of most of countries in the world

towards rise of China power through rapid economic

progress and it gives great potential to increase the

military power of China that eventually made this

country as a new hegemonic actor and even in the

new Indo-Pacific region. And beside that, China

aggressiveness toward the South China Sea issue

also strengthens the assumption that this situation

will be a threat to the regional security and stability.

But in this case we will not discuss deeply about the

threat of military power that is the main issue in this

case, but more than that, we see that there is a more

serious potential threat that is with the threat of

civilization that will be core of the split of conflict in

indo- Pacific. And apart from that, no wonder the

Quadrilateral alliance later emerged as a "security

keeper" as it was aimed to ensuring that regional

security would be achieved by applying western-

style democratic values that were emphasized. But

nevertheless we consider that China will never be

one of the countries that heed it because if we see

histrorisically, the democracy that became the blood

of the flesh of western civilization was never able to

have a unity with the China in which it is not

because of the roots of civilization that owned is

really different. The potential threat of this

civilization at once prove the predictions assumed by

Huntington with the continuing clash of civilizations

that occur between the West and China and will be

even more significant in the 21st century along with

the overlapping geopolitical interests. In the end we

will come to the core question of How is the state of

Indo-Pacific region with the existence of this clash

of civilizations? And how will this affect to pain out

the geostrategic competition in the future?

2 METHODS

This research is a descriptive-analysis research by

using the regionalism approach and clash of

civilizations theory.

2.1 Regionalism Approach

The regionalism approach to studying an area in

general is more than just discussing geographical

territorial positions. This approach is generally

abstract and more appropriate to see how countries

can integrate with each other under their own

interests. This is also happen for the conceptual

changes that have taken in Asia-Pacific to become

an Indo-Pacific region. In this case, Regional

awareness and identity inserted into a "mental map"

and probably becomes something that encourages

Japan to initiate of combine the Indian and Pacific

oceans.In a regionalism approach it is called by the

term "cognitive region" where an area can be

defined on the basis of certain characteristics as the

binding element of the area. It is also encouraging

how in a process of making Regional awareness and

identity based on the cognitive region model will

emphasize three main aspects : 1) The language and

rhetoric were then considered appropriate to explain

conceptual change in Asia-Pacific. 2) The

redefinition of regionalism and regional identity can

continue to be followed by the development of

existing political processes. 3.) Regional awareness

should also refer to a general understanding of a

political activity undertaken by the actors involved

(S., Silvya and Sudirman, 2010). Looking back at

the last two points, the redefinition of the Asia-

Pacific region and its relation to the formation of

Indo-Pacific regionalism can be seen as a product of

the political developments taking place between key

player countries in the Indian and Pacific Oceans

and then creating new labels on regional definitions

which is considered more relevant. And moreover,

the presence of the Quad Alliance in the midst of

this region can clearly signal that the region is

ACIR 2018 - Airlangga Conference on International Relations

152

essentially being developed into an anti-China

region as part of the ongoing geopolitical strategy.

2.2 Clash of Civilization Theory

This theory is widely known as the thought of

Huntingnton who sees that conflicts that occur in the

post ideological era are fueled by differences in

identity, religion, or more generally culture (Orsi,

2018). Basically these aspects are a core of the

civilization that became the view of human life.

Relations between civilizations should be dynamic,

where civilizations sometimes experience fame and

development, rise and fall, and unite or separate, but

in the context of differences in civilization will tend

to subdue, eliminate, or intend to get rid of other

civilizations where this is the root of the clash

between civilizations. The development of

civilizations in practice is not in an equal position

especially when it has been incorporated into a

world political arena. Therefore, the position of

civilization by Huntington then divided into two,

first that acts as a primary force or the main power

and has a significant influence and authority against

other civilizations , and secons is the secondary

power civilization dependent on primary power

(Huntington, 2005). And in the broader context

civilization can include values, norms, institutions

and patterns of thought that are the most important

part of a society. Identity, Culture, Language, and

Religion are important parts of civilization where in

the decades of world development this has been

proven to play a central role in political activity

(Jackson and Sorensen, 2014).

In his book Huntington shares some of the major

civilizations in the contemporary era which include:

Chinese Civilization, Japanese civilizations, Hindu

Civilization, Islamic Civilizations, Western

Civilizations and African Civilizations. And for

about two decades after the end of the Cold War, the

western civilization represented by the United States

has become the only civilization with primary power

that has given its influence to other civilizations.

Therefore it is not surprising that this civilization is

able to make United States as a super power state

that instill values and norms in the international

community order through the process of

westernization and modernization. But since the rise

of China in the 21st century, western civilization

seems to have serious rivals where China and its

civilization potentially shift the western civilization

that has been considered the most universally

powerful civilization. As a result, the so-called

political uncertainty of the world entered a dilemma

with competition between Western and Chinese

civilizations. The terms of substantive underlying

clash is nothing else that the revival of China marks

a rise of Asia that seeks to show the validity and

their values that are considered superior to Western

civilization that assume their values as universal and

able to influence domestic policy and overseas

countries in Asia. What happened to Japan, North

Korea, and even Taiwan is a concrete example to

justify it. How these countries have succeeded in

demonstrating the process of modernization that led

to westernization by adopting western values such as

freedom, equality, democracy, individualism, limits

on the power of government against authoritarian

rule, conducting checks and balances, promoting

competition, and making decisions with fast,

although sometimes ignore the impact on the long

term. But this was immediately challenged by the

presence of power and ethos Confucian owned by

the Chinese to show to the Asian community the

importance of promoting the values of authority,

hierarchy, subordination of the rights and interests of

the individual, the need for consensus to avoid

conflicts and build peace , recognizing the state's

supermarkets on society and individuals and

emphasizing decision-making based on long-term

goals (Huntington, 2005). Based on the fundamental

difference between the values and norms assumed

by western and chinese civilization this is what

makes the civilization relationship between the two

are not able to convert and tends to cause clash

between civilizations itself. Therefore it is not

surprising that in relation to the formation of

democratic indo-pacifism under the initiation of

Quad states united in the alliance of western

civilization and a counterbalance to threats of

Chinese civilization which is nothing but fear-based

where they perceive China potential power will

destroy the democratic system and create a new

system in a regional order based on the values of

civilization.

3 RESULTS

Continuity of use of the name of the Indo-Pacific is

continued until today although basically this idea is

at risk due to their own countries Quad early days of

its establishment it did not work to maintain their

alliance. Australia withdraws from Quad

membership which is considered controversial, then

became one of the main causes of the vacuum of the

security alliance even up to a decade. In November

2017, the leaders of the United States, Japan, India,

Indo-Paciﬁc Region: The Rise of “Quad” and Future Clash of Civilizations

153

and Australia met with the aim of reviving the

Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) and urged

cooperation to form the Indo-Pacific region that is

more free and open. Quad himself explained that the

establishment of the regions geopolitics is a strategy

that has relevance stronger than before (Vatsyayana,

2017). If the trigger factor for the formation of this

alliance either in the past or in this current situation

is because of concerns about the rise of power and

influence of China, the relevant driving factor to see

why this alliance is coming back is because the

power of China is now at a very strategic point.

where the South China Sea Issue is no longer the

sole urgency of the issues that the Quad must pay

attention to, but more than that the emergence of a

New Silk Road or One Belt One Road as a major

geostrategic force owned by China also appears to

be a major threat to be faced by the alliance.

But on the other hand some observers like

Graham Allison are more optimistic to see the rise of

China where he assures that basically the western

need not worry about the power of China when in

the end the country is predicted to follow the

footsteps of Germany and Japan that have a major

transformation under the influence of more systems

liberal by inclusivising themselves on democratic-

based agendas such as in free trade (Demdigest,

2017). Especially now with the presence of Quad in

Indo-Pacific with super power countries that have

significant influence, will greatly assist the

democratization process of other countries in the

region where China will be one of them. But this can

not be justified in full and it will be broken with the

pessimistic assumption that China will never be one

of those democratic states, just as China has never

had a historical record of abandoning its identity and

civilization as a state authoritarian and become a

more democratic country. and with the rise of Quad

from their long sleep and also with the priority of

cooperation to create a democratic Indo-Pacific

regional order increasingly makes the dynamics of

regional security especially in Asia so complex.

On the other hand, the significance of the Quad

revival may be interpreted as an emotional act of its

member states that indeed perceives the threat of

civilization with the rise of Chinese power. Japan as

a proclaimer who calls for the establishment of this

security alliance must have a goal to counter China

hegemony in the East Asia region and create

multipolarity in the inclusive "Broader Asia"

scheme. Japan decision to create a more autonomous

relationship with the US does not provide a

boundary between the merging of the Japanese and

Western civilizations that led to its second unity

under democracy. Japan itself, has long established

itself as a norfmative force that builds democracy in

Asia by respecting fundamental values such as

human rights, liberties, legal supermarkets and

market economics that are considered a fundamental

milestone of a political stability. Therefore, in view

of China decisive action on its claims to the South

China Sea, it does not position Japan to justify it

which is seen as an attempt to undermine the status

quo by coercion that is inconsistent with the rules of

international law. Therefore, in the Indo-Pacific

systematics, Japan is very eager to make the region

as Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP). India, which

is also an alliance of democratic cooperation,

basically also wants to increase its power with a new

geopolitical strategy to support its geopolitical

rivalry with China. In addition, the presence of the

silk route project, which has been crossed Sri Lanka

and even Pakistan has successfully incorporated the

influence of China which is feared will encircle

India, given that China and Pakistan even an existing

strategic alliance in Indian Ocean. By India joining

Quad, the Indo-Pacific scheme is seen to support

India's defense with the strategic engagement of US

and Japanese forces, especially to deal with the

potential escalation of the territorial conflict between

India and Pakistan allied to China for the Kashmir

region. With India joining Quad, the Indo-Pacific

scheme is seen to support India's defense with the

strategic engagement of US and Japanese forces,

especially to deal with the potential escalation of the

territorial conflict between India and Pakistan allied

to China for the Kashmir region. Australia, after

being out of the Quad in 2008 and now Australia

chose to rejoin the Quad are basically motivated by

the fact that Australia's economic dependence on

China are not guarantees of these countries are in a

healthy cooperative relationship. where China

implicitly has increased its influence in the country

by targeting political system and educational

establishments Australia by providing cash

donations to the major parties and politicians

Australia as well as increased number of diaspora

China that as a student in Australia has led to the

pro-China and campaigns to raise Chinese influence.

Therefore, after Australia rejoin with Quad is

expected to support firm attitude to limit China

influences, And on the other hand it is expected that

the Indo-Pacific alone will be able to be an

alternative way to allocate the Australian economic

dependence in addition to China. And last is the

United States that is actually a major force in this

alliance are seeing that the Quad has given room for

the central role of the US to enter into more strategic

ACIR 2018 - Airlangga Conference on International Relations

154

areas to maintain US supremacy regional level.

China's revival of power is highly disruptive to the

United States because of its potential to shift US

hegemony and create a new history to emerge as a

superpower as a non-democratic country that will

come face-to-face with the United States. therefore

strategies to counterbalance Chinese power by

embracing partnership with powerful nations

throughout the Indo-Pacific alliance Quad is an

important asset for the US (Julkaistu, 2018).

Comprehensively, this alliance embraces the

interests of the four Quad states to form a balance of

power with the intent of counterbalancing China.

The apparent interest is to find alternatives to how

these countries can suppress the influence of China

that ultimately can not be separated from the threat

of identity and civilization that they have. If in

modern times the US, Australia, and Japan have

united in western civilization under the democratic

system, India is still at an analytical stages

ambiguous to see more defense against its

democratic side while its acknowledgment of China

contribution to helping Pakistan in the Kashmir

region dispute clearly shows the defense against

Hindu civilization can not be excluded. But however

it works, according to Huntington the circumstances

in which two different civilizations (west and hindu)

can alliance are due to common interests arising out

of a common enemy and coming from a third

civilization (China) (Huntington, 2005). Then to

address it, actually what has been done by the Quad?

As has been pointed out in the earliest discussion

that the formation of Indo-Pacific region itself is a

manifestation of the geostrategy by Quad to suppress

the influence of China especially in Asia. This

region even includes complex economic and security

dimensions to see opportunities and challenges in

the regional order. As for the security sector, Quad

itself has long been conducting a military operation

known as Operation Malabar or which is essentially

an attempt to increase the capacity of military power

between the US and India. In 2007, Operation

Malabar itself was officially followed by All Quad

members along with Singapore so that this

Operation became the largest scale exercise on the

scale of the sea that ever existed at that time. This

operation continues to run continuisly and vacuum

after Australia decided to get out and leave the

alliance. But two years before the rise of the Quad,

this operation was re-organized by the US, India,

and Japan that run until today. But Australia desire

to retake the military operation was rejected by

India. According to the military operation in general

this operation is certainly intended to increase the

military strength of the countries involved to

confront a particular issue in this case is intended to

counter China aggressiveness in the South China Sea

(Julkaistu, 2018). In the economic field itself there is

an Indo-Pacific economic corridor project built on

the principle of freedom and international rule-based

as a tool to compete with China’s silk road strategy.

This economic corridor underscores the importance

of collaborating economic growth in South and

Southeast Asia that is intended to influence the

orientation of countries in Southeast Asia as well as

to tend to increase its trading activities through the

Indo-Pacific mechanism rather than relying on

China's Silk Road (Shankari, 2017). It is of course

very helpful to counterbalance China's silk road

project which is seen as a serious threat where the

project is basically a China way of controlling world

trade and potential trade areas. Furthermore, the

development of the Asian Infrastructure Investment

Bank (AIIB) financial institution that is also part of

the project is increasingly posing a serious threat

especially to America because it can weaken the

dollar-based international system and will strengthen

the China currency itself (Chakhoyan, 2015).

In this situation, China response is not different

from pessimistic predictions about how China will

never follow the flow of political democracy. If the

Indo-Pacific is formed neutrally, then China

definitely does not matter that especially if this

regional expansion will go hand in hand with the

Chinese road silk project. But along with the

development of Indo-pacifism followed by the

formation of the Quad alliance made China feel

discriminated that it is very unfortunate by China

who think that a regional cooperation should not be

politicized especially to exclude its members as has

been done by Quad against China (SCM News,

2017). Similarly, the democratic values and norms

that serve as the basic foundation of the Indo-Pacific

to smooth the democratization process implicated by

the Quad are considered futile and will not change

the state of China as a country that continues to

develop into a large non-democratic force that will

shift the hegemony US.and this effort is in line with

the development of Silk Road that continues

intensified by China to believe that this geostrategy

will help China to realize the strength of its

hegemony.

At the same time conceptually a civilization will

always see itself as the center of the world and

declare itself to be the center of the history of human

life. This perspective automatically highlights the

monosivilational element that diminishes the

relevance of a world that is interpreted in a

Indo-Paciﬁc Region: The Rise of “Quad” and Future Clash of Civilizations

155

multisivilational way (Huntington, 2005). The

geostrategic rivalry between the Quad and China in

the regional order and Indo-Pacific security will

ultimately bring about a clash of civilizations in

which western civilization with its universalist

values will contradict with the confusian principle

values in the China civilization which forms the

basic milestone of ambition. China strategic is to

continue increase its power and influence in the

world political arena. This confucian belief is a

traditional Chinese view of the hierarchical order of

society described in a foloshopy "There are no two

sun in the sky, therefore there can be no two empires

on earth" this is what causes China not to be

sympathetic to multipolar security concepts or even

multilaterant as represented by the Quad itself.

There is also another reason why China should never

accept Western universalism because of its own

China principles that will never forget its history and

its masses especially notes about its identity and

civilization which are fundamentally derived from a

civilization state. Civilization is a fixed price which

is upheld by China because because of civilization

the Chinese society can then form a unity. Therefore

they believe in ther own civilization superiority and

will be disrespectful of those who are not (Jacques,

2010).

4 DISCUSSION

Seeing that Western and Chinese civilization have

the same potential to make its core state as a primary

power and hegemon actor in the Indo-Pacific, the

dynamics of future development of this region are

predicted to be nothing more than a battleground of

both civilizations. Starting from the clash of

civilizations which, in turn, became the source of

post-cold conflict conflicts in the Indo-pacific

context, it will be more complicated by involving the

security aspects of the regional order. By making

India as a connector of IOR and WP connectivity

does not mean the south-east Asian, south-east, and

pacific security dimensions will be assured in this

new geostrategic framework. However, what China

offers in its OBOR geostrategic with its efforts to

maintain its influence in Asia-Pacific also attracts

the attention of the related countries so that the

discourse on the establishment of a sustainable Indo-

Pacific framework is not believed by China where it

is even predicted that soon will disappear (Birtles,

2018).

If we try to linked it in tregionalism study,

China's assumption of the temporary existence of the

region could theoretically be justified in that the

integration of the dominant actors in this region even

makes a common interest against China as the

fundamental reason that brought them together. In

other words, the Indo-Pacific is more suited to be

said to grow based on the demands of the interest

than to see the aspect of the similarity of

characteristic and the contrasting identity of the

record. Hindu civilization which forced itself to

involve with western civilization even under the

banner of democracy, did not deny that one day they

are more aware that it does not work efficiently to

create sustainable cooperation when the common

interest has been deemed to be over or even should

change orientation in accordance with the

development politics that goes hand in hand with

predictions of the rise of China's hegemony as the

great monosivilisational in the future. If the evidence

of Huntington's assumptions about the clash of

civilizations between the West and China

increasingly significant in the 21st century is

justifiable, it is not impossible that the

counterbalancing done by the US, Japan, India and

Australia is not really capable of providing security

regional but which will lead to a new conflict that is

more serious than just a threat of civilization,

although not directly lead to a war.

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