IN FOCUS: INDO-PACIFIC

Australia has a role to play in challenging China’s illegal ‘nine-dash line’ in the South China Sea, but it must consider how it does so carefully, Aristyo Rizka Darmawan writes.

The United States’ geopolitics-first approach to the Indo-Pacific ignores the region’s complexities and treats its development goals as pawns in competition with China, Zenel Garcia writes.

In this episode of the National Security Podcast, Dr Huong Le Thu and Gatra Priyandita join Dr Will Stoltz to discuss how Southeast Asia’s technology and development needs intersect with geopolitics and great power competition in the region. 

Increasing deployments of Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Forces are focused on peaceful projects, but they also serve to bolster the country’s presence in the strategically critical Indian Ocean region, Jay Maniyar writes.

Despite initial wavering, India has emerged as a major stakeholder in the Indo-Pacific, explicitly supporting the growth of the concept and focusing on an inclusive approach for the region, Chander Shekhar writes.

While little-known outside the region, the Colombo Security Conclave is an increasingly important part of the Indian Ocean’s security landscape, Sankalp Gurjar writes.

The United States’ choice to build up the United States Coast Guard in Southeast Asia is an opportunity for the region to cooperate more closely on maritime security, Aristyo Rizka Darmawan writes.

In this episode of the National Security Podcast, the European Union and French ambassadors to Australia join Professor Rory Medcalf to discuss the EU Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific ahead of the EU Indo-Pacific Forum, which will be hosted by ANU National Security College on 25 May 2022.

Commotion has erupted in Maldives over growing Indian influence on the country’s domestic affairs, creating space for other Indo-Pacific partners to step in, Athaulla Rasheed writes.

While the key idea of the Indo-Pacific is growing in salience, to make more effective policy leaders should recognise the differences in views among the countries that ascribe to it, Zenel Garcia writes.