ISDP Voices

The Chinese government has been making diplomatic overtures to areas close to the polar regions as an integral part of its maritime strategy. Beijing’s outreach is not only steadily expanding in the Southern Hemisphere but it maintains a low profile by not questioning the Western order in the region, especially the Antarctic Treaty System (ATS). […]

President Ranil Wickremesinghe of Sri Lanka last month postponed the local government elections scheduled for March 9, 2023. “This is the height of absurdity,” explained senior parliamentarian M. A. Sumanthiran. Despite the executive decision to postpone, Sri Lanka’s top court ordered the government to proceed with the delayed local election, overruling President Wickremesinghe, who argued […]

The Indo-Pacific has rapidly become the global geopolitical and geo-economic epicenter, encompassing roughly two-thirds of the world’s population, global GDP, and international maritime trade, as well as some of the world’s most important strategic challenges. By Indo-Pacific, we generally refer to a macro-region stretching from East Africa to West America – thus decentralizing China’s strategic […]

“No partner is closer and more capable than Japan,” gushed NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during his visit to Japan in early 2023. These words were welcomed in Japan, a country beset by multiple threats – from a potential war with China over Taiwan to an increasingly erratic, nuclear-armed North Korea. It is little surprise […]

On February 2, 2023, the U.S. got access to the four additional bases requested in the Philippines by fully implementing the signed Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA)  in 2014. Though it took time, this agreement gives American forces more extensive access to the region. The agreement states that the U.S. forces will be able to […]