Who Shapes the Indo-Pacific? Power, Security and a Changing International Order

This programme explores how the international order in the Indo-Pacific is changing, with particular attention to the evolving relationships between small, medium, and large countries. Rather than viewing geopolitics simply through the actions of major powers, we ask how states of different sizes navigate competition, cooperation, and uncertainty, and how smaller and middle powers can shape regional affairs in their own right. This connects directly to questions at the heart of geopolitics and security research: how power is distributed, how states respond to strategic change, and how regional security is shaped by both competition and collaboration. The Indo-Pacific provides a particularly fascinating setting for these questions because it brings together diverse political systems, rapidly changing power relations, and some of the world’s most important economic and security dynamics. For researchers and students, this makes the region more than a case study—it is a laboratory for understanding how international politics is changing and for exploring how countries can influence, adapt to, and respond to an increasingly complex world.