Written 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.

Written by Dongkeun Lee

For South Korea, the persistent threat from North Korea remains a priority, making it reluctant to allocate resources to security concerns beyond the peninsula. Australia can bolster Seoul’s confidence by reaffirming its commitment to peninsular security.

Written by Lucas Myers

The Quad’s role is clearer in 2024 than in 2017 or 2007. It coordinates and ensures the provision of public goods in an era of great power competition that is about much more than just traditional hard power security.

Written 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.

Written by Drake Long

While the ISA Council could not agree on regulations, it did agree that it would from now on have oversight over the seabed mining application process instead of the ISA’s exclusive Legal and Technical Commission.

Written by Dr Tess Newton Cain

Prime Minister Manele is a career diplomat and is not given to the theatrical rhetoric we saw previously from his predecessor. He is a known quantity in the region and further afield in Canberra, Wellington, Beijing, and Washington.

Written by Jonathan Dorsey

China is not just bullying its SCS neighbours but is also targeting those perceived to impede its regional dominance, with the United States Navy (USN), Japan Self-Defense Force, and even Canada having been subjected to risky encounters.

Written by Derek McDougall

If the US cannot increase the rate at which it builds submarines, Australia could find itself without submarines once the existing six Collins-class submarines can no longer be used.

Written by Thierry Lepani

As much is yet to be seen with the Australian and US pacts, a potential pact with China should cater to PNG’s problems, rather than solely serving as a solution to China’s strategic positioning in the Pacific.

Written by Varenya Singh and Chetan Rana

China's persistent rejection of the tribunal's jurisdiction and ruling, along with its continuous assertion of sovereignty, underscores the limitations of international legal mechanisms in addressing deep-rooted geopolitical disputes.

The South China Sea remains one of the most potentially explosive regions in the world. What role can regional actors and organisations play in de-escalating the conflict and putting an end to the escalatory trends witnessed in 2023?

We invite several experts to assess the prospects for stability in 2024.

Written 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.

Written 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.

Written by Dr Reuben Steff

While China’s activities are concerning, it should be made clear to Beijing that NZ’s and others’ responses in the security sphere are dependent on China’s approach to the region.

Written by Thierry Lepani

As China and the US push for greater influence in the Pacific, Papua New Guinea has seemingly become the first port of call for the two nations to solidify their standing in the region.

Written by Dr Michael Wesley

If large numbers of Solomon Islanders see Australia as an indispensable partner, it will limit the ability of the country’s elected politicians to build closer partnerships with Australia’s strategic competitors in the Pacific.

Written by Sian Troath

Whether people oppose the acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines, have mixed views, or support it, they often do ground their assessments in strategic analysis and a consideration of other priorities.

Written by Kina Kunz

If the current trend continues, we may be witnessing New Zealand in the process of edging away from its hedging position and instead committing to the US bloc in this ‘new Cold War’.

Written by Xuyang Dong

Australia is being remade into an active and helpful middle power in its region with its own agency, constructively and strategically navigating its presence in the geopolitics of growing China-US rivalry.

Written by Corey Lee Bell and Elena Collinson

The approaching milestone on Bougainville’s journey to independence could once again see China escalating its efforts.

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.

With Australian elections ushering in a change of government and Aotearoa New Zealand’s planned parliamentary elections this year, 9DASHLINE sought the views of several experts on the state of both nations’ foreign and defence policies.

9DASHLINE asks several experts for their assessment of the prospects for Pacific Island agency in 2023 international politics, especially beyond the 'big power influence' by the US and China that has so often been written about in 2022.

9DASHLINE invited a select group of experts to assess how the Kishida administration’s policies on domestic, international, economic, and security issues will differ from the Abe administration.

As a reinvigorated Quad steps up its engagement, some observers have called for the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue to establish a permanent presence in the Indo-Pacific via a standing maritime force. But how viable is this idea?

Written by Ridvan Kilic

Ultimately, in order to secure its maritime boundary in the North Natuna Sea, Indonesia needs the support of like-minded strategic partners from the Quad more than ever.

Written by Sankaran Krishna and Aditi Malhotra

If the other members of the Quad harden their stance against the Chinese, India will find it increasingly difficult to continue its balancing act of being part of a group hostile to the very country on which its own economic survival depends.

Written by Melissa Conley Tyler

Australia’s export industries will hope to see progress in the coming months. Because the trade restrictions were not formalised, they are easy and quick to reverse — if there is the political will to do so.

Written by Reuben Steff and Martin Jirušek

Should war or a system of neo-Cold War style blocs emerge, it will be US allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific that form the new frontlines and that have the most to lose.

Written by Bec Strating

The IPE constitutes a form of ‘normative seapower’ through efforts to exert influence and shape perceptions within the crowded maritime marketplace of norms, ideas, and narratives.