CRAFTING ECONOMIC SECURITY IN THE INDO-PACIFIC REGION

This book addresses the up-to-date development and changing features of Economic Security. It corroborates with the concepts, policies and dynamics in the Indo-Pacific region. This book argues that economic security is an important component of national security, albeit it shall go beyond the narrowly defined national security which mainly focuses on military security and national defense. The central argument of this book identifies at least two forms of transcendence of contemporary economic security. The first transcendence is the transcendence beyond the narrow definitions and limited components, while the second one prioritizes the transcendence beyond the level of analysis; the domestic level in particular. Securing economic security is not only a concern of the government (at the national level), but also a major consideration for regional connectivity and its spill-over impact (at the international level), as well as the maintenance of livelihoods of local society, communities and people (at the grassroot level). This book demonstrates the joint efforts of transnational scholarship addressing the up-to-date development and dynamics of economic security in the Indo-Pacific region, through the lens of interdisciplinary perspectives. The contributors of this book include scholars, such as leading senior professors of international politics, international political economy, economics, anthropology, Southeast Asian Studies, research fellows and practitioners, such as a lawyer and a CEO of a start-up enterprise on green energy and carbon solution, foreign policy think tankers, technology think tankers, cyber security expert, and a diplomat (former foreign policy officer from India). The book contests against two myths. The first is that economic security is exclusively state-centric. This book agrees that the security referent of economic security is mainly the state, that is, the government. Nevertheless, this book argues that the referents should be more than the government by advocating that economic security is also tied up with the international community, especially for the regional communities based on common strategic goals and shared interests. Besides, additional referents to economic security should include private sector actors such as enterprises and companies, and people sectors, such as civil society, local communities and people. The second is to address the new dynamics of the economic security imposed by the strategic currents such as the US-China trade war or Russo-Ukraine War, which triggered the international attention over economic security that is narrowly defined as the crisis for semiconductor chips supply chain resilience.

Chien-wu Alex Hsueh is a professor at the Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies, National Chengchi University, Taiwan. He received his PhD from the Department of Political Science at the University of South Carolina in 2015. His areas of expertise include international relations, international political economy, and quantitative research design. His current research focuses on China's influence and the responses of other states. His work has appeared in International Relations of the Asia-Pacific and in various Taiwanese journals, including Issues & Studies, Taiwanese Political Science Review, Taiwanese Journal of Political Science, Taiwan Democracy Quarterly, and Mainland China Studies.

Masahiro Matsumura is Professor of International Politics at St. Andrew's University (Momoyama Gakuin Daigaku) in Osaka and a non-resident Senior Research Fellow of the Research Institute for Peace and Security in Tokyo. He specializes in national security studies with his academic training in international political economy and development. Dr Matsumura received his LLB. from Kwansei Gakuin University in 1986, MA in Political Science from Ohio University in 1987, and PhD in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1992. He experienced visiting fellowships at Harvard University, Brookings Institution, Heritage Foundation, Cato Institute, NDU Institute for National Strategic Studies, and NCCU Institute of International Relations. Among his extensive publications, Dr Matsumura's articles in English have appeared in journals, such as Survival, Defense Analysis, International Journal of China Studies, International Journal of Korean Unification Studies, Austral, and Jebat, as well as many op-eds in Project Syndicate, Japan Times, Taipei Times, and Nikkei Asia, among others. His recent co-edited books include Defense Policy and Strategy Development: Coordination Between Japan and Taiwan, by World Scientific Publishing.

Dr Alan Hao Yang is currently a Professor at the Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies and a jointly appointed Research Fellow at the Institute of International Relations, National Chengchi University (NCCU), Taiwan. He also serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) at NCCU, one of the member institutions of the Consortium for Southeast Asian Studies in Asia. His areas of expertise include Southeast Asian area studies featured by international relations — particularly focusing on international relations theory, China — Southeast Asia relations, foreign policy, disaster resilience and governance. Since 2024, Dr Yang serves as the governing board member of the SEASIA Consortium. In addition, since 2025, he has served as the President of the Taiwanese Association of Southeast Asian Studies (TASEAS).

In addition to his academic position, Dr Yang has been a think tank practitioner, actively engaging in think tank community and track II diplomacy. Since 2018, he has headed the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation (TAEF), one of the global best new think tank recognized by the Global Go To Think Tank Index as the Executive Director, contributing to Taiwan's practice in advancing the New Southbound Policy (NSP).

Dr Yang has published over 100 journal articles in both Chinese and English, along with 10 academic books. In 2025, he was recognized by Scholar GPS as among the top 2% of Southeast Asian studies scholars worldwide, a distinction that highlights his significant international academic and policy influence.