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.
Read MoreWritten by Jemima Holborow
Without CBRs, Pacific Islands face reduced financial inclusion and slower development. For the US, it risks pushing the region toward central bank digital currencies and de-dollarisation; a trend that could weaken US financial influence.
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreThis month, we spotlight Taiwan’s sweeping drone procurement drive — a decisive shift in defence strategy that underscores its push for self-reliance and asymmetric deterrence. We also track shifting regional dynamics, from landmark defence exercises in Australia and a new AUKUS treaty, to South Asia’s turbulent politics, Southeast Asia’s evolving alignments, and Europe’s role in the Indo-Pacific.
Subscribe today.
Read MoreWritten by Hunter Marston
Southeast Asian anxieties with the Trump administration’s turn toward protectionist trade policies were evident in the May 2025 ASEAN Summit, when the regional bloc expressed ‘deep concern’ with US tariffs.
Read MoreThis month our briefs examine shifting US engagement: new Pacific travel restrictions threaten Washington’s influence, while South Korea’s pragmatic diplomacy may clash with a potential Trump foreign policy reset. Across the region, leaders face a volatile mix of economic strain, diplomatic frictions, and intensifying rivalries — from South Asia’s post-crisis diplomacy to renewed tensions in Southeast Asia and growing unease in East Asia.
Subscribe today.
Read MoreWritten by Arun Teja Polcumpally
To safeguard its internet infrastructure, India must invest in indigenous undersea cable maintenance capabilities, including commissioning Indian-flagged vessels for rapid response within its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone.
Read MoreThis month we cover the India-Pakistan flare-up that reignited nuclear concerns, followed by a burst of regional diplomacy. Our briefs examine how China and India are turning foreign policy into a tool of domestic control — through maritime coercion in Beijing’s case, and treaty-based pressure from New Delhi.
Subscribe today.
Read MoreThis month we explore rising economic tensions in Northeast Asia, as Japan and South Korea respond to a new wave of US tariffs. We also turn to Myanmar, where a devastating earthquake has worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis. Despite urgent calls for aid, the junta is blocking relief efforts while pushing ahead with its plans for elections amid ongoing conflict.
Subscribe today.
Read MoreWritten by Chris Estep
Trump should decisively establish his administration’s approach to competition with China by issuing his own Interim National Security Strategic Guidance document and endorsing it in a televised speech from the Oval Office.
Read MoreThis month, alongside our usual roundup of events, we examine how India is balancing oil imports amid geopolitical pressures and the impact of defunding Radio Free Asia on US soft power in the Indo-Pacific.
Both developments underscore the shifting balance of influence, where economic choices and media narratives are shaping global power dynamics.
Read MoreThis month we examine Berlin’s economic and political challenges, a tough stance on China, and Southeast Asia’s reaction to the arrival of the Trump 2.0 presidency amid US policy uncertainty.
Read MoreWritten by Dr Lucas Knotter
NZ’s supposedly ‘new’ foreign policy is thus neither truly independent, nor truly realist, nor prompted to safeguard Aotearoa’s public interest.
Read MoreWritten by Emma Chanlett-Avery
A decisive shift in US policy towards isolationism and “America First” could disrupt or downgrade ‘trans-Atlantic’ and Indo-Pacific alliances.
Read MoreWritten by Bonnie Holster and Nicholas Ross Smith
Beyond the changing language of New Zealand’s strategic communications, its experimentation with a kaupapa Maori foreign policy has the potential to be transformative.
Read MoreWritten by Dr Thomas Wilkins
Despite dangers closer to home and straitened finances, London does appear to be committed to the region, even if the implementation of some aspects of its new strategic approach remains patchy.
Read MoreWritten by Liam Moore
While alarmist reports of massive numbers of people potentially fleeing across borders because of climate change are incorrect and misunderstand the dynamics of migration, mobility — both within and between states — is a reality in the Pacific.
Read More
