The Indo-Pacific is the geopolitical centre of the world and combines the Asia-Pacific and the Indian Ocean into a single region. As a strategic concept, the Indo-Pacific captures the interest of global powers like the U.S., China, India, Australia, Japan, and the UK, and tests NATO’s ability to adapt and maintain global peace in an inter-connected world. The program’s mandate is to provide Canadians with an analysis of security challenges in the region and to uncover the interplay of global powers, amidst emerging multipolarity in the region.
Where are the Pacific Islands in Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy? In his latest article, Joel Sawyer examines Canada’s Pacific Islands approach, highlighting the region’s central importance to geopolitical competition, food security, and as an potential source of climate change-induced insecurity.
How is the Iran war reshaping China’s strategic calculations toward Taiwan? Nguyen Bao Han Tran examines how the conflict is reinforcing two competing lessons for Beijing: weaker actors can impose serious costs through asymmetric drone warfare, while prolonged U.S. military engagement elsewhere may strain allied deterrence in the Indo-Pacific. As Middle Eastern and Asian security dynamics become increasingly interconnected, this article argues that China may become more cautious about full-scale invasion while finding blockade, gray-zone coercion, and other strategies below the threshold of war increasingly attractive.
As Chinese pressure on Japan intensifies across military activity, economic coercion, and political influence, Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s has undertaken a review of Japan’s Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy in response to a harsher strategic environment. Tasneem Gedi argues, however, that FOIP’s credibility will ultimately depend on whether Tokyo can build a framework durable enough to hold as American support becomes less predictable and the alliance structure underpinning it comes under greater strain.
Narayan Srivastava explores how the weaponization of subsea connectivity threatens the backbone of the global economy and cloud infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific region.
What is Mark Carney’s ‘variable geometry’ strategy, and does it differ significantly from previous concepts of Canadian foreign policy? In this piece, Joel Sawyer (Indo-Pacific and NATO Junior Research Fellow) analyzes continuity and change in Canada’s Indo-Pacific engagement across the current decade, what variable geometry offers, and the challenge posed by worsening global economic conditions.
In his latest piece, Narayan Srivistava argues that Carney’s Indo-Pacific tour was a deliberate push to diversify Canada’s partnerships, improve ties with both developing and developed countries in Asia, and integrate Canada more securely inside the economic and geopolitical networks shaping the region’s future.
How should NATO respond to growing strategic links between the Taiwan Strait and the Euro-Atlantic theatre? In this article, Nguyen Bao Han Tran examines China’s calibrated military pressure on Taiwan and argues that NATO must prepare for the indirect consequences of a Taiwan contingency, from defence-industrial strain to cross-regional deterrence challenges.
What does the Australia-NATO partnership mean in the current moment of geopolitical flux? In this piece, junior research fellow Joel Sawyer examines the strategic histories driving Australia-NATO alignment, the potential hazards of deepening military cooperation, and how to move the relationship forward.
As Ottawa weighs its next submarine fleet, the stakes extend far beyond procurement. Tasneem Gedi argues that South Korea’s KSS-III could help Canada restore its undersea capabilities, strengthen its Indo-Pacific posture, and lay the foundation for a deeper defence relationship with Seoul. In a more demanding world, that makes this a strategic decision with consequences well beyond the navy itself.
The 2025 Thailand–Cambodia border crisis demonstrates how unresolved territorial disputes can quickly escalate when historical grievances, domestic political pressures, and weak conflict-management mechanisms converge. Nguyen Bao Han Tran examines the structural drivers of the crisis and draws broader lessons for NATO on conflict prevention, monitoring, regional diplomacy, and post-conflict stabilization.