The unravelling of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and its implications for the main actors in the Asia-Pacific

Abstract

This thesis, starting from the now-defunct Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), analyses the main economic and political developments in the Asia-Pacific region, with a focus on a selection of the main actors in the Asia-Pacific: China, the US, Japan, Australia and ASEAN. The US, once the main proponent of the TPP as a way to counterbalance China and then the one that effectively killed it, is dealing with the Trump presidency and seems to lack an overall strategy. China, living through an economic miracle after the lost decades in the nineteenth and twentieth century, wants to achieve its full potential and assert its power in the region. Japan is caught in the middle: suffering from economic stagnation and torn between nationalistic ambitions and American military dependency. Australia finds itself economically linked to China but diplomatically is a long-term US ally. ASEAN, on the other hand, is testing the limits of cooperation and respect of sovereignty. The interplay between all these factors and actors will determine who will be “writing the rules” in a region that shows a lot of economic and political dynamism.