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.
In this article, Research Analyst Andrew Erskine compares and contrast the Russo-Ukraine war with the geopolitical climate existing between Taiwan and China, and argues that NATO needs to learn from its key strategic operations in Ukraine and adapt them for a multifaceted maritime operation.
As targeted social media campaigns work in support of political movements in China’s strategic and political goals, how is social media becoming a new NATO battlefield?
How can we unite like-minded countries against threats from encroaching autocrats? Check out Kriti Samnotra’s article on Economic Diplomacy and how the Quad must shift to providing economic assistance to push back against China’s endlessly propagandized Belt and Road Initiative.
The most drastic leak to date of files out of Xinjiang is causing leaders in NATO to review their stance on China. What are the implications of this link on NATO and members’ strategic independence?
In this special report, Research Analyst Andrew Erskine poses the case for why NATO needs to acknowledge its western flank as a legitimate geo-security periphery. Demonstrating the periphery’s history, geo-security gravity, and opportunity to amplify intra-alliance unity and cohesion, Andrew presents a timely insight for why the time is ripe for including a new geopolitical flank to NATO’s security and defence mandate.
In this article, Research Analyst Emilio Angeles examines the Canada-ASEAN free-trade negotiations and explains how it represents the continuation of neo-middle power diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific.
In this article, Research Analyst Andrew Erskine assesses the implications of the AUKUS security pact on NATO’s unity and cohesion towards a collective Indo-Pacific strategy and the need for the Alliance to develop an Indo-Pacific Council to avoid further debacles of intra-alliance friction.
Abstract: Canadian policymakers must be strategic when formulating policy in light of recent coercive diplomatic relations by China between Canada and the United States. Policymakers must respond to hostage diplomacy effectively and NATO poses a good framework on which to base the policy. “Canada can’t pick and choose when it follows the rule of law,” Read More…
As tensions continue to rise in the Indo-Pacific, the President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has turned his attention to realigning with the United States and allies. This shift in policy from aligning the Philippines with Beijing in 2016- to a complete pivot to Washington- has now opened up possible opportunities for the US and Read More…
In this special report, Junior Research Fellow Andrew Erskine explores how NATO-Japanese relations are key for upholding a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific. In particular, Andrew identifies how Japan, back with NATO’s diplomatic experience, can bring together Indo-Pacific nations that do not desire a bipolar order dominated by Sino-US great power competition.