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08.01.2026
IK (14.01.26) – Anxiety, Ontological Security, and the Politics of Transregionalism after the Cold War: The Case of ASEAN
Speaker: Dr. Ahmad Umar (Aberystwyth University)
Wednesday, January 14th 2026, 16:00 c.t. / Room 124, Institut für Politikwissenschaft or online via Zoom
About the lecture: After the Cold War, states and regional organisations have engaged in cooperation beyond their regional boundaries, for example by enlarging its cooperation, establishing diplomatic initiatives, or creating institutionalised space for cooperation with extra-regional great powers. This expansion of regional cooperation is known as ‘transregionalism’. This article advances a new interpretation of how and why small and middle powers engage in transregional cooperation. Drawing on the case of ASEAN, I argue that the small and middle powers engage with their extra-regional counterparts to resolve their geopolitical anxiety. ASEAN, primarily, attempts to resolve this geopolitical anxiety by expressing its normative vision of order –defending sovereignty, non-interference, and institutionalised cooperation— and providing institutional spaces to engage with great after the Cold War. While this normative ordering strategy has worked under liberal international order (1990s and 2000s), ASEAN’s effort to address its geopolitical anxiety was limited under US-China multipolar strategic competition (2010s-present). My assessment ultimately provides a new conceptual framework to understand the contemporary politics of transregionalism from the perspective of small and middle powers.
About: Dr. Ahmad Umar
Ahmad Rizky M. Umar is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action Postdoctoral Fellow at Aberystwyth University, UK, researching ‘transregionalism’ in world politics. He completed PhD at the University of Queensland (2022) and was previously a researcher at ASEAN Studies Center, Universitas Gadjah Mada (2014-2017). His research interests include Indonesia’s Foreign Policy, Asian Security, and postcolonial/decolonial International Relations Theory. Umar is also currently an associate editor of Australian Journal of Interrnational Affairs.
The lecture will be held in English