For these varied reasons, these Southeast Asian states ascribe to the view
that “the region should be kept open and all the major powers should have
stakes in Asia [as] [t]his is most likely to produce a stable, predictable regional
order in which countries big and small can prosper together.”55 They envisage
a situation in which a number of major powers—China, India, Japan, Korea,
and the United States—would be actively involved in the region by means of
good political relationships, deep and preferential economic exchanges, and
some degree of defense dialogue and exchange. The aim is to create overlapping
spheres of inºuence in the region that are competitive but positive-sum.
Ideally, this would translate into greater stability in the region because, ªrst, in