AS THE OLD MULTILATERAL INSTITUTIONS, from the United Nations to the World Trade Organization, become increasingly paralyzed and dysfunctional, minilateral organizations have emerged as another format for getting things done. Small groups of countries are focusing on specific issues and shared interests—often voluntarily, rarely as a formal bloc—as a pragmatic alternative to cumbersome multilateralism and constricting alliances. The concept goes back a long way: Think of the 19th-century Concert of Europe or the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing arrangement born during World War II.
But it’s Asia and the Indo-Pacific that have become minilateralism’s 21st-century testing ground. Geopolitical shifts are fast reshaping the region and pushing it toward a new balance of power. At the same time, the region has little tradition of—or, for now, interest in—formal military alliances beyond a handful of countries’ bilateral pacts with the United States. Their national interests, threat perceptions, and desires for alignment remain too diverse for a binding commitment in the model of NATO, the European Union, or other blocs.
Asia’s minilaterals are
