STRUCTURAL SHIFT OF GEOPOLITICS IN THE INDO-PACIFIC

This book — the latest in our series East Asian Security — was inspired by the Japan–Taiwan Security Dialogue, held by the Taiwan Center for Security Studies, National Chengchi University, and Osaka-based Momoyama Gakuin University. For years, China's political-economic development continued on a trajectory that Western leaders hoped would mirror that of Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, and so many others before them: political liberalization followed economic development. Alas, China chose a different path: one driven by a revanchist mindset and a desire to dismantle the current unipolar order, removing the US from the position of global hegemon — starting with the Indo-Pacific region.

Now, as the world holds its breath while an assertive China policy under a new, second Trump administration takes shape, this slow structural shift of geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific region threatens to accelerate. The book examines this geopolitical shift from a variety of perspectives, bringing together research and analysis from a number of experts in the field from several different nations and disciplines. It is organized according to three broad themes: the increasing internationalization of Indo-Pacific security, the region's shifting alliance structures, and the growing competition over hegemony.

Contents:

• About the Editors
• About the Contributors
• Introduction
• Internationalization of Indo-Pacific Security:
  • European Interest, Japanese Anxiety, and Taiwan Contingency in Times of Geopolitical Competition: Strategic Implications and Policy Recommendations (Hon-Min Yau)
  • Japan's Evolving Alignment With NATO for Soft Balancing Against China: Limited Utility Under the Accelerating Relative Decline of US Military Predominance (Masahiro Matsumura)
  • NATO+ in the Indo-Pacific: Worthy and Realistic? (Luke Bellocchi)
• Shifting Alliance Structures:
  • China–Russia Convergence on NATO and Its Consequences: An Eastern European View (Michał Lubina)
  • The Liberal International Order in Flux: Minilateral Arrangements in a Multilateral Setting (Toshitaka Takeuchi)
  • A Convergence of Interests: The Effect of the Ukraine War on Tokyo's and Manila's Taiwan Contingency Policies (Thomas J Shattuck, Tomohisa Takei, and Robin Michael Garcia)
  • Walking the Tightrope: Japan's Policy Toward Xi Jinping's China (Amrita Jash and Arnab Dasgupta)
• Competition over Hegemony:
  • A Clash of Values: Taiwan's Problematic Democracy Incompatible with the CCP Worldview (Dean Karalekas)
  • Navigating the Taiwan Strait: Analyzing the Legal Controversies and Political Motives behind the Passage of Foreign Warships (Ruei-Lin Yu)
  • An Emerging Deep-Sea Economy: Implications for the Indo-Pacific (Drake Long)
• Index

Readership: The primary market consists of academic researchers, graduate and postgraduate students, and security analysts. Scholars and researchers in the field of international relations and but it is increasingly finding its way into the curricula of the many Asia Studies programs.