Forecast Asia: Security Challenges in the Indo-Pacific
By Crystal Ji, Asia Society Australia
Peter Jennings PSM on Australia's Strategic Outlook: Glass half full or half empty?
On 22 May 2015, Mr Peter Jennings PSM, Executive Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, spoke to the Asia Society Australia members at an exclusive boardroom briefing as part of Asia Society’s ‘Forecast Asia’ series. The talk focused on Australia’s defence policy and security environment in the Asia-Pacific and beyond.
The briefing provided a comprehensive overview of the immediate and longer-term security challenges to Australia in the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle-East, including the assessment of policies and actions by the key players in the region, such as the US and China. The briefing and discussion that followed focused on the dramatic changes in Australia’s strategic environment, and the rise of regional instabilities and domestic vulnerabilities in the region and what they mean for Australia. A common theme of the discussion was the weighing of pessimistic and optimistic assessments about Australia’s strategic outlook.
Discussion also turned to new and emerging issues that have changed the security landscape in recent years, including spikes in Islamic radicalisation, as well as prospects of cyber warfare that have required a reformulation of defence policy. The implications of religious, political and security developments in the Middle East was further discussed, and the capacity of these developments to significantly affect the security in the Indo-Pacific Asia, including Australia.
The event was co-hosted by Ian Wallace, Chairman of Allens, and Stephen Spargo, Partner at Allens and board member of the Asia Society Australia. The event was generously sponsored by Allens, and held in Sydney.
Forecast Asia series – presented across the Asia Society’s global network – offers assessments and interpretations of trends and developments in Asia by leading economists, business, political and social thinkers and visionaries.