Bridging The Oceans

This week, Veerle is joined by Professor Heung-Kyu Kim, founder and Director of the US-China Policy Institute and professor in the Department of Political Science and Diplomacy at Ajou University, South Korea.

Veerle and Professor Kim explore why South Korea – a country that has not released an Indo-Pacific strategy – has been reluctant to adopt the concept. Professor Kim offers an insight into South Korea's strategy of balancing between China, North Korea, Russia, and the United States. Notwithstanding this, there has been a gradual acceptance of the concept and strategies put forward by other countries, and further synergies between the Moon Jae-In government's so-called New Southern Policy may be forged with the Biden Administration. Professor Kim also highlights South Korea's view on the potential formation of new 'alliances of democracies' and reflects on South Korea's invitation to join this year's G7 Summit, to be hosted by the United Kingdom.

This week, Veerle is joined by Blake Herzinger, non-resident Fellow at the Pacific Forum in Honolulu, who is an US Navy reserve officer currently based in Singapore, following 10 years of active service.

Veerle and Blake embark on a tour d'horizon of the Trump Administration's Indo-Pacific strategy, unpacking the recently declassified US Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific drafted in 2018 and assessing what worked and what did not in the outgoing adminstration's approach. The discussion then explores enduring possible continuities in the Biden Administration, and changes in future US policies toward the Indo-Pacific.

From reinforcing partnerships within and outside of the region – including with the UK – to the need for a more broad-based approach to security, the new administration will need to take advantage of goals which are more readily achievable, while more deftly handling enduring regional challenges.

This week, Veerle is joined by Dr. Garima Mohan and Dr. Frederic Grare to explore the growing momentum in Europe of individual states releasing strategies and foreign policy guidelines on the Indo-Pacific region. In particular focus are Germany and France, whose strategies while broadly aligned also offer some divergences.

Our guests explore how these policies might be implemented in the future and what role the European Union may play given the calls by Paris, Berlin and others for the EU to release an Indo-Pacific Strategy of its own.

They also discuss the need for coordination amongst European nations in the region and their key partners, the comparative advantages offered by the EU, and the implications of a Biden administration on European policy towards the Indo-Pacific. While the UK's Indo-Pacific tilt still requires further fleshing out, our guests highlight potential areas of complementarity and cooperation between the UK and key European actors in the region.

This week, Veerle is joined by Professor Rory Medcalf, Head of the National Security College at the Australian National University and internationally-recognised thought leader for his work on the Indo-Pacific concept of the Asian strategic environment, as articulated in his 2020 book Contest for the Indo-Pacific (released internationally as Indo-Pacific Empire).

This week, Veerle is joined by Dr. Evan Laksmana, senior researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Jakarta, Indonesia, and Dr. Huong Le Thu, senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute's (ASPI) Defence and Strategy Program.

This week, Veerle is joined by Darshana Baruah, Visiting Fellow at the Sasakawa Peace Foundation in Tokyo and non-resident scholar with the South Asia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Dhruva Jaishankar, Director of the US Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and Non-resident Fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.

Together, they explore the view of the Indo-Pacific from New Delhi. Driven in part by an evolving foreign and security policy trajectory within India and a changing regional security environment, India is set to take on a stronger role within the Indian Ocean Region and seek opportunities to assist partners in other parts of the Indo-Pacific.

Darshana and Dhruva discuss traditional and non-traditional maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region, the future of regional multilateral architecture, the role of small island states and middle powers, and new areas of cooperation and competition. The road ahead for UK-India cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, while promising, is not without its challenges. It will take political will on both sides to move this relationship forward.

Veerle and Ryosuke Hanada, Indo-Pacific Fellow at the Perth USAsia Centre, explore the origins of Japan's Indo-Pacific policy, unpack its trajectory over the last few years, and look ahead at whether and how it might evolve in a post-Abe government. They also discuss Japan's priority sub-regions and policy areas in the Indo-Pacific, which helps pinpoint areas for collaboration and cooperation with partners in Europe, including the United Kingdom. Opportunities clearly lie ahead for UK-Japan engagement in the region.

In this first episode, Veerle is joined by Dr. Neil Melvin, Director of RUSI's International Security Studies department and Aaditya Dave, Research Analyst in the Navigating the Indo-Pacific Programme of the ISS department. Together, they explore the Indo-Pacific concept and region, why the concept of the Indo-Pacific is catching on, what some of the key defence and security questions in the region will be, and what this means for UK foreign and security policy as it undergoes its Integrated Review process.

In this trailer, we explore some of the key questions we'll be asking in the flagship podcast of the Navigating the Indo Pacific programme of RUSI's International Security Studies department.