Abstract
This article  explores perceptions and  reactions across  Southeast Asia towards the Obama administration’s “pivot” or “rebalance” to Asia. The  US  approach has  been  dismissed as  more  rhetorical than substantive grand   strategy,  its   credibility  under  renewed  scrutiny  following President  Obama’s  cancelled visit  to  Southeast Asia  in  October 2013.  Nonetheless,  the  rebalance has  expanded from  its  origins  in  2010–11, acquiring  diplomatic and  economic “prongs”  with  a  particular focus on  Southeast  Asia,  broadening the   bandwidth  of  US   engagement beyond  military diplomacy  and   force  realignment.  However, the  US “pivot”   has   had   to  contend  with   entrenched  narratives of  the   US role  in  the   region   oscillating between  extremes  of  neglect  or  over- militarization.  The   US-China  strategic dynamic  weighing  over   the region,   itself   central  to  Washington’s  strategic calculus  across   Asia, has  also   coloured  the   lens   through which  Southeast  Asians  have  viewed  the   re-balance. Varied  reactions  to  the   US  rebalance  at  the national  level   in  Southeast  Asia   are  further  suggestive  of  a  sub- regional  divide between “continental”  and   “maritime”  states that   to some  extent  predisposes  their   perspectives and   orientation  towards the  Great  Powers.
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