Strategic Partnership
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Features
Collective Deterrence
Sentry Staff Tensions between strategic competitors, North Korea’s persistent nuclear weapons expansion and Russia’s attempts to shift Europe’s balance of power with its war against Ukraine have contributed to a coalescing among the United States and its Allies and Partners to modernize strategies that more effectively combat 21st century security threats. Geopolitical changes, particularly in the Indo-Pacific and Europe, threaten…
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Across The Region
Port Partnership
Australia announced in January 2022 that it would provide U.S. $420 million to Pacific neighbor Papua New Guinea to upgrade key ports, amid concern in Washington and Canberra that Beijing’s infrastructure investment in the Pacific islands has a military ambition. Australia’s funding will help the Papua New Guinea Ports Corp. increase capacity to accommodate larger ships, including container ships on…
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Across The Region
Cyber Coordination
Australia and the United Kingdom will “fight back” against cyberattacks from Iran, the People’s Republic of China and Russia, then-Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton said. Australia and the U.K. will coordinate cyber sanctions to increase deterrence, raising the costs for hostile state activity in cyberspace, then-Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne said after signing an agreement with U.K. Foreign Secretary…
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Across The Region
Missile Acquisition
The Philippines plans to acquire a shore-based anti-ship missile system from India for almost U.S. $375 million to strengthen its Navy, the Southeast Asian nation’s defense minister said. The Philippines is in the late stages of a five-year, U.S. $5.85 billion project to modernize its military hardware, which includes World War II-era warships and helicopters used by the United States…
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Departments
Indo-Pacific Terror Threat
BENARNEWS Photos by AFP/GETTY IMAGES Terrorist threats in Southeast and South Asian countries declined in 2021, a Singapore think tank said in its annual threat assessment published in January 2022, noting that COVID-19 movement restrictions had “flattened the curve of terrorism.” There were fewer terror-related incidents in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines as governments battled the pandemic, according to…
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Features
Rising Relationships
Dr. Alfred Oehlers Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies The past year saw much media coverage of newer strategic partnerships in the Indo-Pacific. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad — whose members are Australia, India, Japan and the United States — continued to figure prominently, with September 2021 witnessing further maturation of this forum with the first Quad…
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Conflicts - Tensions
A Unified Multidomain Solution
INDIAN ARMY MAJ. GEN. (RET.) S B ASTHANA During a conversation with United States President Joe Biden, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping attempted to create the impression that a bipolar world order exists. Xi’s aggressive posturing during that November 2021 virtual summit was likely rejuvenated by his unchallenged mandate in the sixth plenary session of the CCP’s…
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Features
Grand Plans
Nobukatsu Kanehara/Doshisha University Photos by The Associated Press Today, a liberal international order in the Indo-Pacific is emerging for the first time in modern history. Most people in this region came through different paths than those followed by most Westerners and Japanese. Many Indo-Pacific countries were colonized, and their people were racially discriminated against. After World War II, these nations…
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Conflicts - Tensions
Unusual Suspects
FORUM Staff A pandemic entering its third year has shifted the outlook of Indo-Pacific defense practitioners. Security threats don’t always take the shape of hostile troops, bombs or missiles. They are sometimes invisible, often naturally occurring and can be the result of bad actors taking advantage of a chaotic landscape. Whether threats come from hackers capitalizing on an internet-dependent population…
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Climate
Security Threat
FORUM Staff The vast Indo-Pacific sits at the forefront of critical climate challenges that contribute to conflict, instability and forced migration. Changes in the seas and oceans, in particular, pose an increasing security threat. “Climate change-exacerbated impacts such as increasing food and water insecurity, forced migration and displacement, disaster response and recovery that does not meet expectations, and broader economic…
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