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.
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Read MoreWritten by Dr Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat
Indonesia’s foreign service, though respected in ASEAN, has not fully kept pace with the demands of a world where China is central to trade, technology, and security. Without a cadre of China specialists embedded across government and academia, Jakarta risks responding to events rather than shaping them.
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 MoreWritten 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.
Read MoreWritten by Chhay Lim and Chandarith Neak
Without institutional mechanisms that both parties accept as legitimate and binding, border disputes remain vulnerable to escalation and external intervention whenever domestic political pressures or regional tensions rise.
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.
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Read MoreWritten 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.
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.
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Read MoreWritten by Eerishika Pankaj and Rahul Karan Reddy
The concern Beijing has with an India-Philippines strategic partnership lies in its signalling of the rise of layered, maritime-centric, military cooperation emerging in China’s periphery — designed to reinforce a rules-based order and deter unilateral changes to the status quo in the global commons.
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.
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Read MoreWritten by Dr Apila Sangtam
Crucially, reinvigorating key connectivity initiatives such as the India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway would serve as both a symbolic and practical demonstration of India’s commitment to regional integration.
Read MoreWritten by Aniello Iannone
France now joins a growing list of Indonesia’s strategic partners. It was a strategic moment in which a major European state and a rising regional middle power found common ground in their shared search for autonomy.
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.
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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.
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Read MoreWritten by Dr Sophal Ear
Cambodia offers a litmus test: if Japan can sustain influence there, it may do so across mainland Southeast Asia.
Read MoreWritten by Dr Justyna Szczudlik
Sympathising with the idea of hybrid peace is a dangerous trap for the West. The only way to undermine Sino-Russian alignment, deter China from aggressive moves, and defend the rules-based order is to do everything possible to help Ukraine win the war.
Read MoreThis month we look at how the ongoing Gaza conflict is reshaping global geopolitics, and intensifying the rivalry between the US and China in the Indo-Pacific. Our second brief argues for the (re)inclusion of Kenya — an important regional power strategically located along the Indian Ocean — as a key part of the Indo-Pacific.
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