Publication Year: 2022
US-China Strategic Competition and Converging Middle Power Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific
DOI: 10.1080/09700161.2022.2088126
Abstract: The 21st century’s central economic nexus will be centred on the Indo-Pacific region. Simultaneously, the intensifying US-China competition in the Indo-Pacific is deepening. Regional middle powers must negotiate this competition to ensure their interests remain intact. This article applies a realist framework to analyse the strategic alignment of Australia, Japan, and India in response to the great power competition. It examines the strategy each middle power is pursuing to protect their interests and the motivations behind their approaches. It finds a convergence in middle power interests centred on maritime behaviour, adherence to international law, and investment in regional institutions.
Publication Year: 2022
Tailored engagement: Assessing Japan’s strategic culture and its impact on U.S. – China competition
DOI: 10.1080/01495933.2022.2087434
Abstract: The concept of “Strategic Culture” has enjoyed a resurgence in the last two decades as a method for understanding the behavior and decision making of potential adversaries. Strategic culture assessment methodologies offer a way to examine the policy choices of states, while accounting for ethnocentric biases. While these assessments have been used widely for analyzing adversaries, they are underutilized in assessing allies. The emergence of great power competition between the U.S. and China will increase pressure on the U.S.-Japan alliance. Increasing the understanding of Japan’s strategic culture will provide the United States insight into ways to engage with Japan to make strategies to compete with China more effective.
Publication Year: 2022
Managing China’s rise in the Indo-Pacific: Japan’s strategic engagement with India
DOI: 10.1080/09733159.2021.2015135
Abstract: The article explains how Japan’s strategic interests are converging with India against an assertive China in the Indo-Pacific. Japan has been pursuing a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” (FOIP) policy, which seeks to manage China’s rise by deepening Japan’s strategic coordination and cooperation with its closest partners through the Quad. Though Japan still values its bilateral relationship with the United States (US), its security partnership with India is part of Tokyo’s persistent efforts to support the US-led rules-based international order. In order to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the Indo-Pacific region, Japan has been a strong supporter among the Quad to promote non-military cooperation, primarily focusing on infrastructure building, supply chain resilience and technological innovations. The article argues that Japan’s strategic engagement with India is now an integral part of its wider national security posture as Tokyo has come to recognise New Delhi as an important balancer against Beijing. That the US has enhanced its ties with India in recent years has further facilitated Japan–India strategic convergence since it is aligned with American policy towards the Indo-Pacific region in an era of great power competition.
Publication Year: 2021
Middle power hedging in the era of security/economic disconnect: Australia, Japan, and the ‘Special Strategic Partnership’
DOI: 10.1093/irap/lcab023
Abstract: Deepening superpower rivalry between the United States and China has created acute strategic dilemmas for secondary powers in the Indo-Pacific such as Australia and Japan. This predicament is exacerbated by their divergent security and economic interests which cut across the superpower divide; a condition dubbed a ‘security/economic disconnect’. These two intimately related dynamics preclude clear-cut implementation of conventional balancing/bandwagoning alignment choices and have led to mixed hedging strategies to cope with this situation. To address these issues, the article presents a refinement of the hedging concept in International Relations (IR) that emphasizes its multi-dimensional nature, within a broader interpretation of alignment itself. It applies this to the case of the Australia and Japan with reference to their Strategic Partnership, which is both emblematic of hedging responses to systemic uncertainty, and an institutional mechanism through which to operationalize joint hedging policies. This provides insights into how middle power strategic partnerships are managing strategic risks across the security, economic, and other, domains.
Publication Year: 2020
Why Quasi-Alliances Will Persist in the Indo-Pacific? The Fall and Rise of the Quad
DOI: 10.1177/2347797020962620
Abstract: The rise of and increasing assertiveness by China presents a significant structural challenge in the Indo-Pacific region (IPR). In an effort to retain the status quo, a number of states have signed-up to the ‘free and open Indo-Pacific’ (FOIP). In support of FOIP, operational mechanisms have emerged—most importantly the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad). The United States, Japan, Australia and India have come together in this informal format to exchange views on current security challenges and coordinate their strategic approaches. This article analyses both form and function of Quad and argues that both the diplomatic and military arrangements between Quad members are a direct response to ever-increasing Chinese assertiveness. Alongside a detailed empirical analysis of Quad, this paper addresses the question why Quad 2.0 will thrive although previous attempts at security networks failed. Balance of threat theory will illuminate why informal quasi-alliances vis-à-vis China are going to be the structural new normal for the IPR.
Publication Year: 2020
Sino-US Disorder: Power and Policy in Post-COVID Indo-Pacific
DOI: 10.1177/2631684620940448
Abstract: Great powers have invested in order-building projects with competing vision of political values and ideologies. How the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic shapes the balance of power and order are debated. The pandemic arrived in the midst of Sino-US strategic contestation, a crumbling European project, de-globalisation and contested economic governance architecture. While the pandemic exacerbated Washington abdicating leadership role, Beijing also has alienated itself from the followers of rules based order. It has sharpened the clash of rhetoric, narratives, and perceptions. The pandemic will reorganise the international system and power structures. Situating the Indo-Pacific project in this backdrop, this article critically analyses the debates, discourses and nuanced divergences that are shaping the Indo-Pacific puzzle in the power corridors of Washington, Tokyo and Delhi, in addition to mapping Beijing’s approach to Indo-Pacific. The article evaluates the contrast in their respective visions of order, China strategy, ASEAN centrality and multilateral free-trade regimes. But these subtle departures have not restricted major Indo-Pacific powers to weave a strategic web of democracies and pursue a win-win issue-based multi-alignment on matters of mutual strategic interests. With new realities in play, the India-US-Japan triangle will feature as one of the key building blocks of Indo-Pacific to deliver on the shared responsibility of providing global public goods.
Publication Year: 2020
Emerging Contours of Contemporary Asian Maritime Connectivity: Economic and Strategic Objectives
DOI: 10.1177/0974928420936136
Abstract: This article intends to look at how contemporary and future Asian connectivity linkages are likely to impact Asian geopolitics and geo-strategy. While China has dominated the contemporary connectivity discourse with its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), other players such as Australia, India, Japan and the USA are engaged in their own connectivity bids which often converge and intersect in the region. As a result, the countries involved in the Indo-Pacific cross-linkages are tacitly entering a game of one-upmanship. Influence through connectivity linkages has also shifted the discourse around balance of power for countries to balance of influence. It is in this context that initiatives such as the Mausam find centrality in the country’s changing outlook. This article attempts to look at Asian connectivity from a dual perspective of economic competition, on one hand, and strategic calculations, on the other hand. The scope of the article is limited to analysing China, India and Japan as leading Asian countries in the emerging connectivity competition, besides the USA as the most important external players in Asian connectivity geopolitics and geo-strategy.
Publication Year: 2020
Indo-Pacific Order and Japan–India Relations in the Midst of COVID-19
DOI: 10.1177/2631684620940476
Abstract: Because of the USA’s relative decline of national power and the rapid emergence of China, the Indo-Pacific lacks a regional order as existed during the latter half of the twentieth century. The USA and China have had strained relations since the 2010s as economic and hegemonic rivals. Furthermore, at the cusp of the 2020s, a blame game is unfolding over COVID-19. Neither nation can be expected to serve a role as an order manager of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific. Under such international situations, Japan and India should cooperate to initiate consideration of the regional order now. To establish such an order for the future, ends and means carry an importance. The ends should be the creation of a free, open, inclusive and democratic Indo-Pacific. The means should be some mechanisms based on principles of multilateralism, for example, Quad-Plus, not only involving the four countries: like-minded countries should also be included. In this way, we can find a silver lining beyond COVID-19.
Publication Year: 2020
The Rise of China and Japan’s ‘Vision’ for Free and Open Indo-Pacific
DOI: 10.1080/10670564.2020.1766907
Abstract: Unlike the common view that sees FOIP as a containment strategy against China, this article argues that Japan’s FOIP vision seeks to maintain an open and inclusive regional order that incorporates all regional countries into a common framework. To realize such a vision, Japan has strengthened its regional order-building efforts with other regional like-minded countries. However, such efforts have limitations in terms of the resource shortage, legal constraints, and the lack of regional consensus. Unless Japan can address these challenges, the FOIP would end up being a mere utopian dream, rather than a meaningful vision or strategy that can prevent the emergence of a Cold War and maintain an inclusive and rules-based order in the region.
Publication Year: 2022
Enhancing Democratic Partnership in the Indo-Pacific Region
Abstract: This study builds on a report CSIS published in 2020 on ways the United States can partner with allies and partners to enhance democratic partnership in the Indo-Pacific region. This follow-on effort includes case studies on the democracy support efforts of Australia, Japan, India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Taiwan; comparisons of democracy support strategies; data on official development assistance (ODA) funding related to democracy broadly defined; and recommendations for ways the United States can coordinate democracy support initiatives in the region with like-minded partners as well as regional networks and institutions.
Publication Year: 2021
Maritime Issues and Regional Order in the Indo-Pacific
Abstract: This edited volume examines the political and security issues influencing and shaping the developing maritime order in the Indo Pacific. If focuses specifically on the impact of China’s maritime expansion upon the policies and strategies of the regional states as well as the major players. The chapters examine the interaction of these players, paying particular attention to Japan, as the originator of the Indo Pacific idea and promoter of security cooperation and regionalism. It also covers the responses of the ASEAN claimants, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines as well as Indonesia, alongside the key players, India, the US and also the EU.
Publication Year: 2021
The Strategic Relations Between India, the United States and Japan in the Indo-Pacific: When Three is Not a Crowd
Abstract: This book analyses the growing relationships among India, the United States and Japan in the Indo-Pacific region, which can broadly be defined as the space encompassing both the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, though different nations have their competing visions of its extent. While on the one hand we have an ascendant China in all respects, at the same time, the US has continued interests in maintaining its leadership role in the region and beyond. Washington appears to employ a hub-and-spoke model where its most important ally in the region, Japan, fits in perfectly as a point from which to connect to the rest of the region. However, the critical role will be that of India, which is not an American ally but is key to many American plans in the region. Will India cooperate?
By examining the rapidly-evolving relations among the three countries, this book explores India’s position in this region. Crucially, this book will analyse how the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic will upset power relations in the region. It is suitable reading for advanced undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of international relations, politics, security studies, political science, and geopolitics.
Publication Year: 2021
Russia in the Indo-Pacific: New Approaches to Russian Foreign Policy
Abstract: This volume zones in on Russia’s relations with the Indo-Pacific region through the lens of theoretical pluralism, presenting alternatives to the mainstream Realist view of Russia as a major power using geopolitical strategies to establish itself.
Russia in the Indo-Pacific is an understudied topic that needs a fresh perspective. Contributors to this volume are based across Russia, China, Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the USA, drawing on a range of multinational perspectives and theoretical approaches encompassing realism and liberalism, constructivism and the English school of international relations. Reflecting a trend of internationalization in the Russian study of IR, such theoretical pluralism could facilitate Russian contributions to emerging global IR theory.
Russia in the Indo-Pacific contributes towards a more intelligible common discourse in the Indo-Pacific, of interest to students and scholars of Sino-Russian relations, Indo-Pacific international relations, and international relations theory. It will also be of interest to policymakers and general readers following foreign policy and economic trends in the Indo-Pacific who want to better understand Russia’s role.
Publication Year: 2020
Japan And The Pacific Quadrille: The Major Powers In East Asia
Abstract: This book is based on the papers presented at the 1983 Tokyo conference on East Asian politics. It provides an analytic context for understanding Northeast Asian politics and deals with Japanese foreign policy, with focus on the political challenges Japan faced and its changing international role.
Abstract: Challenging the view of Taiwan as a product of transience and displacement, it highlights Taiwan’s subjectivity, viewing the island as a site of a global development that epitomizes both resistance and negotiation in the process of cultural flows.
The fourteen contributions by an international team of scholars investigate the multi-layered and multidirectional interplays between the island and the outside world, exploring the impact of complex cultural encounters on the construction, writing and rewriting of Taiwan in a global context. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the topics covered range from Taiwanese literature, cinema, food culture and tourism to cultural geography, colonial history, and folk religion, with comparisons made with Japan, China, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the West.
Find the book on Routledge.
