Vietnam

Since the end of the Cold War, Vietnam attempted to foster neutrality behaviour in the Asia-Pacific region, primarily symbolised by a focus on autonomy preservation and a multi-directional foreign policy, often described in scholarship as “Bamboo Diplomacy”. However, in light of historical asymmetry and territorial disputes with China in the SCS, along with the rise of China-US great power competition, Hanoi's efforts at neutrality have shifted towards hedging behaviour. Despite increasing pressure from Beijing and Washington, Vietnam's hedging behaviour now appears to be anchored with a range of stopgaps identified as a strong autonomy-seeking drive, a multi-directional foreign policy and the “Nos” policy principles. This hedging behaviour is designed to insulate Hanoi from alignment choices, and allow it to engage with Beijing and Washington. Simultaneously, it allows Hanoi to engage with other regional secondary states to diversify and maintain its hedge. As a result, Hanoi is effectively resisting alignment through entanglement for now. While Vietnam possesses a kingmaker's role, it maintains relative space to continue hedging, and thus is furthest from the kingmaker's conundrum.