From strategic upgrading to sovereign AI: East Asia under renewed pressure

Written by Viktor Buzna

Just as steel, petrochemicals, and semiconductors once underpinned national resilience, computing power and AI ecosystems define economic and strategic autonomy today.

The grey-zone of interest: How China tests Indonesia’s South China Sea strategy

Written by Omar Rasya Joenoes

The challenge, therefore, is to transform ambiguity from a reactive posture into a deliberate and integrated strategy — one that manages asymmetry without allowing incremental pressure to redefine the strategic status quo.

The Navigator’s February issue — out now!

This month’s brief examines a hardening strategic landscape: as grey-zone drone incursions test Europe’s resolve, Indo-Pacific states grapple with contested political transitions and mounting internal pressures that complicate deterrence, resilience, and regional stability.

Join our briefing today and stay ahead of the curve.

News9DLFebruary 27, 20269DASHLINE, US, United States, Indo-Pacific, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Samoa, South China Sea, India-Pakistan, India, Pakistan, France, New Caledonia, Cambodia, Pacific Islands, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, PNG, Papua New Guinea, Trump, Myanmar, Elections, drones

Economic security moves India-Japan relations into a new strategic phase

Written By Simran Walia

Institutional mechanisms for economic security cooperation require clear roadmaps, regulatory predictability, and policy coordination to attract increased Japanese participation in India’s high-technology sectors.

Interpreting crime data in Japan's immigration debate

Written by Peter Chai

If Japan is to navigate rising immigration without fuelling social division, public debate must move beyond simplified crime narratives. When officials discuss crimes by “foreigners” in isolation without historical context or comparisons with overall crime trends and across subgroups, they risk creating an unbalanced narrative and fuelling concerns about xenophobia.

East Asia, Faultlines9DLFebruary 25, 20269DASHLINE, Peter Chai, Interpreting crime data in Japan’s immigration debate, Japan, immigration, Japanese immigration, Japanese foreign nationals, Japan foreign labour, Crime statistics, Japan crime, Sanae Takaichi, Kimi Onoda, xenophobia, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)

Prabowo’s presidency: Meals, power, and China

Written by Nathaniel Schochet and Peyson Hunt

The MBG programme stands as both a policy initiative and a political symbol of the Prabowo administration: ambitious in scope, reinforced by the military, and directed by an executive willing to subordinate bureaucracy and norms in pursuit of their goals.

The Navigator’s January issue — out now!

This month’s briefs examine an international order in rupture: across the Indo-Pacific, middle powers are hedging through overlapping, issue-based partnerships, even as Myanmar’s sham election exposes the limits of values-based realism in an increasingly pragmatic global landscape.

Join our briefing today and stay ahead of the curve.

News9DLJanuary 30, 20269DASHLINE, US, United States, Indo-Pacific, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Samoa, South China Sea, India-Pakistan, India, Pakistan, France, New Caledonia, Cambodia, Pacific Islands, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, PNG, Papua New Guinea, Trump, Timor-Leste, Myanmar, Elections

In Brief: Naledi Tilmann and Dr. Yatana Yamahata

We are delighted to introduce our new editorial leadership.

In this In Brief discussion, Editor-in-Chief Dr Yatana Yamahata and Managing Editor Naledi Tilmann share their vision for the platform’s future, outlining a renewed focus on inclusive Indo-Pacific analysis that highlights under-represented states, youth-led movements, and non-state actors shaping regional security.

News9DLJanuary 16, 20269DASHLINE, Indo-Pacific, Manali Kumar, Japan, Myanmar, Asia, Europe, ASEAN, In Brief: Naledi Tilmann and Dr. Yatana Yamahata, Naledi Tilmann

Canada and the Philippines: A fast-rising security partnership reshaping Ottawa's Indo-Pacific posture

Written by Jonathan Berkshire Miller

For the first time in years, Ottawa is treating the Indo-Pacific not as a region of opportunities to sample but as a theatre in which it must choose where to invest.

Pacific, Most Popular9DLJanuary 14, 2026Canada and the Philippines: A fast-rising security partnership reshaping Ottawa's Indo-Pacific posture, 9DASHLINE, Jonathan Berkshire Miller, Canada, Philippines, South China Sea, Indo-Pacific, Visiting Forces Agreement, Second Thomas Shoal, Manila, Ottawa, Japan, Australia, Squad, United States

The Navigator’s December issue — out now!

This month’s briefs examine an Indo-Pacific shaped by hybrid insecurity: as the United States retreats from development leadership, middle powers step in to fill the void, while escalating climate disasters are redefining resilience, influence, and regional power.

Join our briefing today and stay ahead of the curve.

News9DLDecember 31, 20259DASHLINE, US, United States, Indo-Pacific, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Samoa, South China Sea, India-Pakistan, India, Pakistan, France, New Caledonia, Cambodia, Pacific Islands, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, PNG, Papua New Guinea, Trump, Timor-Leste, COP30, Sheikh Hasina

Italy–Malaysia relations: A cornerstone of Rome’s Indo-Pacific engagement

Written by Emanuele Ballestracci

Italy cannot rival the hard-power presence of France or the UK, nor does it aspire to. Instead, it has constructed a pathway based on economic cooperation, private-sector activism, and steady institutional ties, which over time create the trust needed to expand into political and security spheres.

The Navigator’s November issue — out now!

This month’s features explore twin fragmentations reshaping the Indo-Pacific: the quiet construction of a north–south undersea security arc as South Korea joins Australia on the path to nuclear-powered submarines, and the near-collapse of COP30, which exposed a deepening crisis of trust at the heart of global climate governance.

Join our briefing today and stay ahead of the curve.

News9DLNovember 28, 20259DASHLINE, US, United States, Indo-Pacific, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Samoa, South China Sea, India-Pakistan, India, Pakistan, France, New Caledonia, Cambodia, Pacific Islands, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, PNG, Papua New Guinea, Trump, Timor-Leste, COP30, Sheikh Hasina

Japan and Cambodia: Partners in a diplomatic balancing act

Written by Shin Kawashima

Japan and other US allies must strengthen ties with Southeast Asian countries to address US retrenchment, positioning themselves as credible alternatives for countries seeking to avoid over-reliance on China.

The Navigator’s October issue — out now!

This month, we explore how Australia and Papua New Guinea’s Pukpuk Treaty is redefining defence cooperation through identity-based integration, while the IMF–World Bank meetings in Washington reveal how financial governance continues to constrain Global South autonomy.

Subscribe today and stay ahead of the curve.

News9DLOctober 31, 20259DASHLINE, US, United States, Indo-Pacific, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Samoa, South China Sea, India-Pakistan, India, Pakistan, France, New Caledonia, Cambodia, Pacific Islands, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, Pukpuk Treaty, PNG, Papua New Guinea, IMF, World Bank, Trump, Timor-Leste

The European Union needs a more pragmatic foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific

Written by Angelo M’BA

Perhaps counter-intuitively, only an approach less concerned with morals and more with pragmatic engagement can pave the way for the EU to spread its values in the Indo-Pacific.

Victory and sacrifice: The dual message behind China’s commemorations

Written by Vincent K.L. Chang

China and the United States should be willing to make concessions; treating compromises not as a sign of weakness, but as strategic wisdom. The rest of the world should ask what it can do to prevent escalation and avoid self-fulfilling threat perceptions, rather than contribute to them.

The Navigator’s October issue — out now!

This month, we spotlight the mounting pressures reshaping the Indo-Pacific: Beijing’s use of Martyrs’ Day as both a tool of domestic loyalty and an international signal of resolve highlights how nations are navigating turbulence on two fronts. Across the region, domestic instability — from popular protests to fragile governments — is constraining states’ ability to adapt to intensifying great power rivalry.

Subscribe today.

News9DLSeptember 26, 20259DASHLINE, US, United States, Indo-Pacific, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Cook Islands, Samoa, South China Sea, India-Pakistan, India, Pakistan, France, New Caledonia, Cambodia, Pacific Islands, Vanuatu, Tuvalu, Tonga, Pukpuk Treaty, PNG, Papua New Guinea, IMF, World Bank, Trump, Timor-Leste

Discover the August issue of The Navigator – out now

This month, we spotlight India’s partnership with the Philippines, demonstrating sovereignty-sensitive maritime cooperation, while New Zealand’s expanding role in space highlights how smaller states assert strategic influence in high-tech domains.

Subscribe today.