David Schaefer is an intern in the Lowy Institute's International Security Program.
- Adding strategic context to the heated discussion at last weekend's Shangri-La Dialogue, Rory Medcalf calls for a new balance of uncertainty to navigate great power competition.
- If the dialogue was a sign of more hard-edged diplomacy in the years ahead, should ASEAN abandon consensus for something more targeted?
- Japan's Shinzo Abe delivered a strident address at Shangri-La, but Jens Wardenaer from IISS argues that the Prime Minister has yet to overcome pacifist opinion within his own coalition government, let alone the broader public.
- After travelling to Beijing, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has redoubled his country's efforts to revive the stalled maritime code of conduct.
- China's maritime behaviour is beginning to have an impact on Indonesia strategic thinking, where a shift in military focus to the South China Sea is underway.
- As more details leak out from the recent Russian-Chinese gas deal, basic arithmetic suggests it will come at the expense of Gazprom's profits, strengthening China's negotiating hand in the Asian energy market.
- According to Information Dissemination, trends in defence technology may also see China's armed forces reverse their historic dependency on Russian imports.
- The Australian Senate's estimates hearings included a tense moment on Monday, after one Senator pressed for details about this country's military obligation to the US alliance in a potential regional conflict. Defence Department Secretary Dennis Richardson offered this blunt response: 'That's a hypothetical which we don't go to'.
The Lowy Institute International Security Program's work on Indo-Pacific security is supported by two grants from the John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation.
