Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment 2021 launch

The Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment examines key regional security issues and is published each year in association with the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue. The issues analysed within its covers drive and inform discussions at the event.

While the Dialogue will not be taking place this year, the Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment remains more important than ever in continuing and sustaining important conversations around regional security issues in a context of heightened geopolitical tensions.
The Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment 2021, the eighth in the series, places particularly strong emphasis on the policies of major and middle powers in the Asia-Pacific, with chapters on the regional-security implications of more competitive Sino-American relations; Japan’s security policy towards China; the Republic of Korea’s security interests beyond the Korean Peninsula; India’s strategic outlook; Southeast Asia’s predicament amid rising great-power competition; and Australia’s new regional-security posture. Analyses in this volume also look at the various ways in which strategic competition is expanding and intensifying, including NATO’s growing interest in China’s activities and its strategic implications, and COVID-19’s impact on regional security.

In this launch, chaired by Dr Lynn Kuok, a panel comprising several authors of chapters in the Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment 2021 discuss key regional security challenges and respond to questions from the audience. It is her hope and that of her co-Editor, Dr Tim Huxley, that the essays in the volume and conversations around them will inform and develop discussions among decision-makers, policymakers and thinkers in the region and beyond on the strategic present and future of the Asia-Pacific.