Navigating the middle: Japan-Cambodia relations and the challenge of geopolitical competition

Written by Dr Sophal Ear

Cambodia offers a litmus test: if Japan can sustain influence there, it may do so across mainland Southeast Asia.

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US-Japan-South Korea trilateral cooperation: Overcoming the populist threat

Written by James Kaizuka

Deeper institutionalisation of security cooperation, bilaterally between Japan and South Korea and trilaterally also including the United States, can head off all of these threats and ensure that the ‘inaugural’ Indo-Pacific Dialogue is not the ‘only’ Indo-Pacific Dialogue.

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’We’re going through changes’ – What Xi meant when he spoke to Putin

Written by Dr Kerry Brown

In this context, the one positive Russia offers to China is that it does not belong to the Western bloc. Xi’s seemingly warm words to Putin are an acknowledgement that his enemy’s enemy is his friend.

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ASEAN enters 2023 in a moment of crisis

Written by Hunter Marston

Some experts suggest Indonesia is likely to propose adopting a seven-vote threshold instead of requiring all ten members to agree on passing a measure. This would go a long way to making the institution more agile, responsive, and decisive.

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Why India won’t break from Russia.. yet

Written by Ian Hall

New Delhi clearly believes — rightly — that India’s relationship with the United States, underpinned by a shared interest in better managing China’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific, is sufficiently robust to weather disagreement over this war.

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Russia’s self-inflicted annus horribilis

Written by Joe Varner

The strategic importance of the Russian Pacific Fleet has never been greater to Moscow than it is now as the key means to engage and support Chinese foreign policy objectives in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.

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In Conversation with Ali Wyne

This month we enjoy a fascinating conversation with Ali Wyne where we discuss his new book America's Great Power Opportunity: Revitalizing U.S. Foreign Policy to Meet the Challenges of Strategic Competition.

In Conversation: Katie Stallard on ‘Dancing on Bones’

9DASHLINE recently sat down with Katie Stallard to discuss her new book ‘Dancing on Bones: History and Power in China, Russia, and North Korea’. Drawing on first-hand, on-the-ground reporting, this fascinating book examines how the leaders of China, Russia, and North Korea manipulate the past to serve the present and secure the future of authoritarian rule.

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The RS-28 Sarmat: Russia’s Satan II

Written by Joe Varner

When asking whether it is a deterrence game-changer in the short and long run, the answer is likely no. To counter the Sarmat, Washington can move more and more of its vulnerable land-based deterrent to the US sea-based portion of the triad and onto submarines.

Talking to all but tilting to one: India’s voting pattern at the UN

Written by Bashir Abbas

India’s abstentions during the present Ukraine crisis are occurring during the rule of the Bharatiya Janata Party, whose right-wing credentials are well established. The 2014 vote on Crimea occurred during the rule of its predecessor — the United Progressive Alliance, a centrist party with the Congress at its helm.

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The Russian military build-up on Japan’s northern frontier

Written by James DJ Brown

Tokyo has little option but to stand firm, enhance cooperation with democratic partners, especially the United States, and demonstrate that Japan, while not acting aggressively, is closely monitoring Russian activities in its vicinity and is fully capable of defending its waters and airspace.

The Belt and Road Initiative in China’s western frontier and Central Asia

Written by Zenel Garcia

The need for continued Chinese investment and market access ensures that Central Asian leaders will continue to relegate the question of Uyghur diasporas or the treatment of other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang to the periphery.

Russia and Pakistan: Strange partnership

Written by Vuk Vuksanovic

Pakistan needs partners among great and regional powers concerned about the fate of Afghanistan. Russia, on the other hand, had to strengthen its diplomatic and market ties with non-Western countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America as a result of the Ukraine Crisis and worsening relations with the West.

Australia’s place in the contest for technological leadership

Written by Jennifer Jackett

Australia has a critical stake in how the US navigates strategic and economic trade-offs of technology cooperation and competition with China.

China’s new ‘space vehicle’

Written by Joe Varner

This is more about an aggressive hegemonic China's conventional warfighting capabilities and ensuring they have free reign in the Western Pacific against states like Taiwan without facing the prospect of nuclear war.