New Security Nexus Perspective: The Cage of Equidistance
India’s bid to remain equidistant between Russia, China, and the U.S. is no longer sustainable. This Security Nexus article explores how strategic autonomy risks becoming constraint.
Reimagining the U.S. Defense Industrial Base for Strategic Deterrence
Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies Associate Dean of Academics Dr. Deon Canyon has authored a new article in Security Nexus titled “Adaptive Power Helps the U.S. Defense Industrial Base Become a Tool of Deterrence.” His paper argues that as strategic competition with China intensifies, the U.S. Defense Industrial Base (DIB) must shift from a reactive supplier to a proactive tool of deterrence and influence. Using the Adaptive Power framework, the article reimagines the DIB as a sovereignty-aligned asset that supports U.S. strategic objectives through five operational pillars: timing, context, legitimacy, modularity, and learning.
China’s Nuclear Rise
Edge of Competition Main Page Chapter 6 Bill Wieninger Rational leaders took us to the brink of nuclear annihilation; that peril still exists today. — Robert S. McNamara, U.S. Defense Secretary, 1961–1968 Interview in The Fog of [...]
China’s Reusable Rocket Surge
Edge of Competition Main Page Chapter 4 Elliot Joseph Fox Whoever controls space controls the world. — Lyndon B. Johnson Introduction On December 21, 2015, a soot-streaked Falcon 9 first stage descended in controlled triumph onto [...]
Peak China?
Edge of Competition Main Page Chapter 3 Ryan C. Agee The rise of a great power often brings about its own set of challenges, which can lead to its decline. — Orville Schell and John Delury, [...]
Dialogue | Episode 51: North Korea’s Wartime Windfall — A Dialogue with Dr. Victor Cha
In Dialogue Episode 51, Dr. Victor Cha—one of the world’s foremost experts on Korean security and geopolitics—explains the stakes and the limited choices before Washington and its allies. As he observes, “It really shows that North Korea is not content to sit on its hands. They’re being very proactive about taking advantage of strategic situations where they see an opening.”
Dialogue | Episode 49 Maldives: Small State, Big Stakes — A Dialogue with Dr. Andrea Malji
In the contested waters of the Indian Ocean, the Maldives is proving that size does not dictate influence. With just over half a million people and limited hard power, the island nation is not merely weathering great-power competition—it is actively shaping it. In Dialogue Episode 49, Dr. Andrea Malji, an expert on South Asia and Indian Ocean geopolitics, explains how geography, governance, and diplomatic agility form the core of Malé’s strategic playbook.
Dialogue | Episode 48: North Korea’s Russia-China Play
North Korea is no longer merely surviving—it is strategically maneuvering. Against the backdrop of a fraying global order and eroding sanctions enforcement, Pyongyang has deepened wartime collaboration with Russia while leaning on China to sustain its economic core. What may appear as opportunistic bandwagoning is, in fact, a calibrated strategy—one that seeks regime durability, economic windfalls, and enhanced geopolitical relevance.
Future Security Leaders Convene in Ottawa to Confront China’s Hybrid Warfare
OTTAWA, Canada — The Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies, in partnership with the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa, Global Affairs Canada, the Canadian Department of National Defence, the Centre for International Governance Innovation, and the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, hosted a workshop on China’s hybrid warfare strategies July 7–11. Held in Ottawa, the five-day event convened emerging leaders from the Indo-Pacific, the Americas, and Europe to explore economic coercion, cyber threats and strategic risks to the defense industrial base. Participants engaged in scenario planning, strategic analysis and peer-to-peer exchanges to better understand the multilayered and multidomain tactics employed by China.
Dialogue | Episode 47: China’s Military Bet on the Future A Dialogue with Elsa B. Kania
In today’s contested Indo-Pacific, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is no longer simply modernizing—it is transforming. Guided by artificial intelligence, automation, and top-down political control, the PLA’s strategic shift toward “intelligentization” reflects Beijing’s bold ambition to field a “world-class military” by 2049. In Episode 47 of Dialogue, I sat down with Elsa B. Kania—respected expert on China’s military innovation—to examine how this transformation may shape the future of war.
