9DASHLINE — Articles

The Quad’s public goods approach: countering the BRI

Written by Muhammad Faizal Bin Abdul Rahman

Even as it coordinates with other Indo-Pacific strategies and the G20, the priority for the Quad should be to make the geopolitical landscape more amenable to engagement with ASEAN.

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2023: Global governance for the seabed sinks further still

Written by Drake Long

The ground laid in 2022 will ensure that state-backed exploration of seabed mining will continue, and 2023 may see the first steps taken towards commercial-scale exploitation of the seabed.

Emerging Issues, Most Popular9DLApril 19, 20239dashline, 2023: Global governance for the seabed sinks further, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, UNCLOS, ocean health, maritime economy, international waters, rare earth metals, test extraction, exploitation of marine areas, environmental concerns, international community, maritime treaty, international seabed, conservation, environmentalists, Pacific, commercial interests, seabed, conservationists, UN Intergovernmental Conference, High Seas Treaty, maritime borders, Third Conference on the Law of the Sea, deep sea, International Seabed Authority, ISA, deep-sea geography, private companies, marine genetic resources, pharmaceutical research, Mining Code, UN Ocean Conference, island nations, small island nations, Nauru, Clarion Clipperton Zone, The Metals Company, TMC, manganese, nickel, cobalt, environmental impact assessment, extraction, NORI, Palau, mining moratorium, fragile ecosystems, ocean floor, seafloor, polymetallic nodules, seabed mining, noise pollution, deep sea creatures, exploitation, environmental damage, commercial exploitation, commercial-scale exploitation, state funds, continental shelf, Japan, China, South China Sea, The Philippines, deep-sea resources

Beijing uses border villages to secure territorial claims

Written by Harry Thursby-Pelham

With India constructing roads and border villages leading up to the LAC in response to China’s construction, it looks like tensions on the border will continue in the foreseeable future.

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Forum: The Rules-Based International Order in the Indo-Pacific

In recent years discussions among scholars, analysts, and policymakers have focused on the nature, transformation, and/or ostensible crisis of the rules-based international order. We invite three experts to offer differing perspectives on these ongoing debates in the context of the Indo-Pacific in this Forum for 9DASHLINE.

Emerging Issues9DLFebruary 8, 20239dashline, Forum: The Rules-Based International Order in the Indo-Pacific, rules-based international order, NON-ALIGNMENT, VAN JACKSON, Indo-Pacific, strategic non-alignment, Sri Lanka, Asian political economy, minor powers, sovereign debt, India, worker precarity, East Asian development model, global economic order, Sino-US competition, United States, China, spheres of influence, zero-sum, Indonesia, East Timor, Singapore, Pacific Island nations, Non-Aligned Movement. As great powers try to, great powers, Cold War, hedging, Third-World politics, FLEUR JOHNS, Multilateral, automated socio-technical systems, diplomacy, Automatic Identification System (AIS), mangrove forests, Indo-Pacific lionfish, ecology, GEORGE LAWSON, international order, Covid pandemic, war in Ukraine, costs of living, Western power, liberal, AUKUS, Taiwan, Myanmar, financial crisis

The Bougainville Autonomous Region: Balancing independence and foreign relations

Written by Dr Lucas Knotter

While it is tempting to view the relatively small island of Bougainville as merely drifting into the geopolitical whirlwinds of more powerful actors in the region, we should not forget that Bougainville also maintains considerable leverage in relation to these actors.

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Counter-polarisation and political expediency in Indonesia

Written by Greg Fealy, Sally White, and Burhanuddin Muhtadi

If we place the 2021 survey results beside data from other credible surveys over the past decade, it is possible to conclude that the high point of polarisation occurred during and between the 2014 and 2019 elections, but has since declined.

Papua New Guinea in 2022: Key issues and future challenges

Written by Teddy Winn

The challenge for the incoming government will be to continue upholding PNG’s foreign policy practice of ‘friends to all, enemies to none’ while not destabilising existing bilateral arrangements the country has with its regional partners, including its closest and long-time partner, Australia.

Bitcoin to bombs: Illicit money and the preservation of Kim Jong-un

Written by Casey Babb

If he is going to be compelled to behave differently, or if regime change is the end goal, policymakers, practitioners, and cyber experts need to cut off North Korea’s digital “bank robbers”.

Indonesia: The cost of repressing Islamists

Written by Nava Nuraniyah

The attack on an Ahmadiyah mosque in Sintang, West Kalimantan on 3 September is but one indication that the existing anti-radicalism campaign has merely served as a political weapon to target government enemies, rather than defending minorities.

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.