Free Talk Event
March 6, 2025

Harmonising Australia, India and Japan’s Strategies Towards the Small Island States in the Indo-Pacific Region

The world is currently experiencing a period of flux, where the balance of power is being severely challenged, and multilateral institutions are put under immense strain. The competition between rising powers and established powers is intensifying, each following its own timeline and strategic calculations. Amidst this, states with territorial disputes in the South China Sea and other regions face increased grey zone activities, while island nations dependent on external aid and trade feel increasingly vulnerable. Additionally, some states feel trapped between pursuing economic interests and ensuring national security.
In this context, Dr Ahlawat outlines the potential roles that major Asian powers—Japan, Australia, and India—can play in the Indo-Pacific region. It emphasises the importance of harmonising their strategies to achieve a free and open Indo-Pacific. He also explores ways to avoid the risks of conflict and aims to develop a new ‘Asian’ framework for achieving long-lasting peace and security in the region.

DR DALBIR AHLAWAT

Dalbir Ahlawat is a senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology, Macquarie University, Australia. His areas of specialization include Indo-Pacific security and strategic affairs, India’s security challenges, India-China strategic competition, and the small island security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region. Recently, he availed the Japan Foundation research fellowship under the Indo-Pacific Partnership Program. He has published five books, the most recent titles include Australia-India Relations: Evolving Polycentric World Order (2017) and Indo-Pacific: Emerging Powers, Evolving Regions and Challenges to Global Governance (2016). In addition, he has published over 40 research papers in journals and edited books.

Youth Bulges, Economic Inclusion and Democratic Legitimacy in Southeast Asia

The apparent signs of weakening support for liberal democratic values among young people in Europe and North America have prompted concerns among scholars and advocates. Young people in two major electoral democracies in Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines, regularly express high levels of support for ‘democracy’, yet have in two recent elections thrown their support in large numbers behind figures who symbolise previous authoritarian regimes. So what do young Indonesians and Filipinos mean by ‘democracy’, and how do they prioritise ‘democracy’ relative to other things they say they value in/from governments? Using nationally representative surveys I seek to examine the extent to which young people’s political behaviour can be understood via seeing them as ‘instrumental democrats’ who conceive of democracy in terms of economic outcomes—and, if so, whether this poses hazards to the popular legitimacy of democratic systems over the long term as ‘Gen Z’ faces challenges of under-employment, inequality, and over-education.

DR LIAM GAMMON

Liam Gammon is a political scientist with a specialisation in contemporary Southeast Asian, especially Indonesian, politics. As Research Fellow at the East Asian Bureau of Economic Research at the Australian National University, he also contributes to collaborative research on a range of topics in international economic and political cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region and teaches Asian politics. Liam is the editor of New Mandala and a member of the editorial board at East Asia Forum. He received his PhD from the Australian National University in 2022.

MODERATOR

MR RYOSUKE HANADA

Ryosuke Hanada is a PhD candidate and Sessional Teaching Staff at the Department of Security Studies and Criminology, Macquarie University. He was a Research Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), researching Japan’s foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific region from 2016 to 2020. He experienced several fellowship programs, including the Japan-US Partnership Program of the Research Institute of Peace and Security (RIPS), Young Strategist Forum of the German Marshall Fund (GMF), Strategic Japan Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Indo-Pacific Fellow of the Perth USAsia Centre, and Raisina Young Fellow of Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in India. He holds Master of Research from Macquarie University, MA from the University of Warwick and BA in Law from Waseda University.