Security

Social movements, political transitions, and international and intra-state conflicts will create security challenges in Asia for the foreseeable future. ASPI's work aims to generate ideas to address these challenges. To do this, we convene informal dialogues among regional actors that help create trust and mutual understanding, and we organize task forces to recommend solutions that are designed to bridge differences between competing interests and opposing viewpoints.

Featured Initiatives

Securing Peace in Asia

ASPI initiative, led by a high-level Policy Commission, to strengthen regional security institutions in Asia.
Asia’s New Pivot: Evolving Ties Between East and West Asia

ASPI initiative exploring the strategic implications of emerging ties between major countries in the Middle East and major countries in east, south, and southeast Asia.
The Rise of Asia and Its Impact on the Global Order

This ASPI initiative examines whether the international order can be reformed to reflect new power realities while ensuring continued support for open societies and economies.

Reports

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Ties That Bind: Quantifying China's Public Diplomacy and Its 'Good Neighbor' Effect

AidData report analyzing China's public diplomacy and its impact in East Asia.

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Reconciling Expectations With Reality in a Transitioning Myanmar

In this ASPI issue paper, Debra Eisenman analyzes five critical challenges facing Myanmar in 2018.

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Preserving the Long Peace in Asia

ASPI report on how to strengthen regional institutions in the Asia-Pacific to manage peace and security in increasingly turbulent times.

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The Trump Administration’s India Opportunity

In this ASPI paper, Marshall Bouton argues that the Trump administration should move rapidly to secure closer cooperation with India.

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UN 2030: Rebuilding Order in a Fragmenting World

In his capacity as Chair of The Independent Commission on Multilateralism, ASPI President Kevin Rudd published a report with recommendations for the next UN Secretary General.

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U.S.-China 21: The Future of U.S.-China Relations Under Xi Jinping

In his report for the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, ASPI President Kevin Rudd recommends a common strategic narrative to guide the U.S.-China relationship.

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The U.S. and South Asia After Afghanistan

This report offers new ideas on how to integrate competing U.S. interests in South Asia, encourage stronger interagency collaboration across the East Asia-South Asia divide, and expand expertise on South Asia in the U.S. government.

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Stabilizing Pakistan Through Police Reform

Report: Improving Pakistan's police force

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Central Asia's Crisis of Governance

This report describes critical governance and stability challenges in a region marred by staggering levels of corruption, human rights abuses, conflict, and civil unrest.

Related Commentary

The United States and China—The Avoidable War

Visiting the U.S. Naval Academy, Kevin Rudd asks 10 significant questions of policy makers in this new era of strategic competition between the U.S. and China.
Eliminating Global Poverty Means Providing Sanitation and Water for All

Kevin Rudd says that providing sanitation and water for all is a part of eliminating global poverty and reaching Sustainable Development Goals.
The United States and China—A Relationship Adrift

ASPI President Kevin Rudd looks at the challenge of how to build new rules around the U.S.-China relationship in this new era of strategic competition.
Trump Has Caught the Attention of China Policymakers

ASPI President Kevin Rudd says the period of strategic engagement between the U.S. and China is yielding to a new period of strategic competition.
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Is the United States Still a Champion of Democratic Capitalism?

Kevin Rudd tells us that if history is any guide, it is not a foregone conclusion that democratic capitalism will somehow inevitably prevail in the West, let alone in the East.
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Five Ways to Rebuild Global Trade.

Wendy Cutler says it’s time to develop a co-existence pact between the two very different systems at play in the U.S. and China.
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Tensions Overshadow High-Level U.S. Talks in India

Anubhav Gupta tells us why it's an open secret in both Washington and New Delhi that Trump’s Indo-Pacific strategy was little more than a branding exercise.
4 Questions: Pakistan's Future Under Imran Khan

The controversial cricketer-turned-politician takes office at a turbulent time in his country's history.
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Could Trade War Lead to the Real Thing?

Kevin Rudd suggests we light a candle for coming trade talks with China since we’ve routinely failed to see the tipping points between failed diplomacy and limited conflict and then more general war.
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North Korea's Denuclearization was 'Wishful Thinking'

Daniel Russel writes that North Korea's delivery on promises made at the Singapore summit has been slow and deceptive.
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Was China's RIMPAC Exclusion an Opening Salvo or a Wasted Shot?

Lindsey Ford on China's exclusion from the world's largest multinational naval exercise.
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Slow and Steady: India’s Tentative Steps Into the AI Race

A little late to the game, India certainly has the talent and expertise to be an AI power.
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Kevin Rudd on Xi Jinping, China and the Global Order

Kevin Rudd delivered an address to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore for The Significance of China's 2018 Central Foreign Policy Work Conference.
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Will Growing International Criticism Impact Situation in Myanmar?

ASPI's Debra Eisenman on whether Myanmar’s military leaders should be charged for crimes against humanity.