Digital Conference: The Indo-Pacific Operating System
The digital conference The Indo-Pacific Operating System: Power, Order and Rules for the 21st Century was hosted by the Lowy Institute on 1-2 December 2021.
Opening Session: Kurt Campbell in conversation with Michael Fullilove
The White House Indo-Pacific Coordinator Kurt Campbell speaks with Lowy Institute Executive Director Michael Fullilove about US-China relations, AUKUS and Australia's bilateral relationship with China.
Panel 1: Competing visions
Panellists discuss convergences and divergences in Indo-Pacific countries’ conceptions of regional order. They debate US and Chinese approaches to the region with particular focus on Taiwan, the India-China border dispute, and centrifugal pressures on ASEAN.
Convenor
Ben Scott, Director, Australia’s Security and the Rules-Based Order Project, Lowy Institute
Panellists
Elina Noor - Director, Political-Security Affairs and Deputy Director, Washington, D.C. Office Asia Society Policy Institute
Professor Wu Xinbo - Director, Center for American Studies, Fudan University Professor and Dean, Institute of International Studies, Fudan University
Tanvi Madan - Director, The India Project; Senior Fellow, Project on International Order and Strategy, The Brookings Institution
Panel 2: New rules?
Panellists debate whether the Indo-Pacific needs new institutions, rules and norms to accommodate or constrain power shifts in the region with particular focus on the US, China, the EU, Japan and Australia. They discuss the ASEAN-centred regional architecture, AUKUS, the Quad, the Law of the Sea, the South China Sea, liberal democratic values and free trade.
Convenor
Hervé Lemahieu, Director of Research, Lowy Institute
Panellists
Akiko Fukushima - Senior Fellow at the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research and Nonresident Fellow, Lowy Institute
Dr Bec Strating - Executive Director of La Trobe Asia, Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy
Richard Maude - Executive Director Policy, and Senior Fellow, Asia Society Policy Institute
Lecture: China's vision for a new world order
Nadège Rolland outlines China’s dissatisfaction with the current order, objectives for change and views of Australia.
Speech
Nadège Rolland, Senior Fellow, Political and Security Affairs The National Bureau of Asian Research and Nonresident Fellow, Lowy Institute
Panel 3: Hard power and regional order
This session opens with a speech from Australian Defence Minister Peter Dutton, followed by panellists discussing how military power supports and weakens regional order as well as how regional institutions and groupings shape the deployment of military power.
Speech
Hon. Peter Dutton MP, Minister for Defence
introduced by Dr Michael Fullilove AM, Executive Director, Lowy Institute
Panel discussion - convenor
Lesley Seebeck - Honorary Professor, Cybersecurity Australian National University
Panellists
Lisa Curtis - Fellow and Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Program Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
Evan Laksmana - Senior Research Fellow, Centre on Asia and Globalisation at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
Greg Moriarty - Secretary, Australian Department of Defence
