9DASHLINE recently sat down with Dr Elvin Ong to discuss his new book Opposing Power: Building Opposition Alliances in Electoral Autocracies. This insightful study of East and Southeast Asian electoral autocracies from 1965 to 2020 illustrates why and how opposition parties build alliances to fight autocratic incumbents, and under which conditions they don’t.
Read MoreWritten by Radityo Dharmaputra and Demas Nauvarian
The Global South can play an essential role as the host of a peace forum after the G20 Summit, and Indonesia — following its historical role in the Bandung Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement — can be the initiator of such a forum.
Read MoreWritten by Rushali Saha
The Biden administration’s expansion of the geographic definition of the Indo-Pacific to include the entire Indian Ocean, while a positive first step, is merely a symbolic move unless complemented with concrete policy action.
Read MoreWritten by Jefferson Ng
The Makassar Strait is likely to grow in prominence as Indonesia’s new capital emerges as a centre of economic activity alongside Jakarta, and defence policymakers in Indonesia will want to better control the flow of maritime traffic passing through the Strait.
Read More9DASHLINE recently engaged in a wide-ranging conversation with Dr Ramon Pacheco Pardo about his fascinating new book ‘Shrimp to Whale: South Korea from the Forgotten War to K-Pop’, which charts the incredible rise of South Korea, from colonisation and civil war to the thriving nation it is today.
Read MoreWritten by Eunwoo Lee
South Korea, whose external engagement has so far revolved around the intractable security stances of the US and China, can surely hedge its security interests by embracing Europe.
Read MoreWritten by Bec Strating
Both the 2022 Cope North exercise and the Tonga example highlight concerns that hard and soft security are not so easily distinguishable.
Read MoreWritten by Moez Hayat
Canada’s omission from the AUKUS defence partnership is a missed opportunity for both Washington and Ottawa to leverage their longstanding alliance as relevant powers in the Indo-Pacific.
Read MoreWritten by Nicholas Ross Smith
Washington needs to replace its grand strategy with more nuanced strategies that better reflect the evolving power dynamics of the international and regional systems. Without realistic adjustments, the United States and its allies face a difficult future of regional great power competitions in Eastern Europe and the Indo-Pacific.
Read MoreWritten by Jamie Withorne
If Beijing categorises AIS as a data type subject to DSL, it should issue a clarification on how it plans to collaborate with the IMO and other international organisations on issues of AIS data.
Read MoreWritten by Michael J. Mazarr
China’s challenge to US power and international norms is very real, but so are its limitations. China is aggressive, but not unreservedly so. It has strong ambitions, but ones that may be amenable shaping and channelling in ways that do not end up threatening vital US interests.
Read MoreWritten by Felix Kuhn
Whatever the Japanese government ultimately decides, it has already become evident that giving human rights a more prominent place in Japan’s foreign policy will bring significant challenges.
Read MoreWritten by Liberty Chee
As Southeast Asia, and indeed most other world regions age, without an increase in public spending on welfare, more and more migrant women will likely be called on for providing caring services.
Read MoreWritten by Jacob Stokes
Biden’s prioritisation of allies and close partners could leave the rest of the region’s states unsure about their role and those of the region’s legacy multilateral institutions, such as ASEAN and the East Asia Summit.
Read MoreWhile Xi wishes to change the world order, he has yet to elucidate an attractive and comprehensive vision for an alternative. Xi’s entire conception of foreign affairs is to strip them of values (or at least liberal ones), rendering his worldview vacant of ideas that would woo others.
Read MoreWritten by Olli Pekka Suorsa
Unlike the Royal Navy’s much larger destroyers, the OPVs can offer more opportunities for regional engagement, including participation in multinational training and exercises, capacity building activities, and showing flag. After all, ‘showing up’ is the ‘hot currency’ in Southeast Asia.
Read MoreWritten by Benedikt Christoph Staar
North Korea’s neighbours are not too keen on denuclearisation either. Admittedly, neither China nor Russia benefits from a nuclear-armed North Korea because it causes regional insecurity at best and unforeseeable political and economic damage at worst.
Read MoreWritten by Mariana Vieira
Because the ‘China threat’ debate is premised upon the American understanding of 1945 as year-zero of its own global hegemony, proponents struggle to grapple with the potential for different, past and future, conceptions of a global order.
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