US–China, US–China—the commentary goes on and on. Who will be dominant? Must rising powers always go to war with established powers? Can the US assemble an Indo-Pacific alliance to balance China? Might the US agree …
Geostrategic competition, climate change and Covid-19 push at the South Pacific, heightening the internal challenges of state security and human security. The South Pacific has weak states and strong societies. As a journalistic recycler, I’ve …
The defence outlook of major countries is fast changing amid the Covid-19 crisis and China’s increasingly coercive military posturing in the Indo-Pacific. Japan’s changing perspective on a first-strike capability, Australia’s 2020 defence strategic update, and …
Scott Morrison’s speech at the launch of the defence strategic update and new force structure plan was fascinating. No fewer than four times he said that the deterioration in Indo-Pacific security was as concerning as the slide …
Long waits can let cooler heads prevail and reverse hot-headed decisions. In January, President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines threatened to terminate the 1998 Philippine–US Visiting Forces Agreement—a treaty-level pact that provides the operational framework …




