The last-minute cancellation of President Joe Biden’s visit to Sydney for the Quad summit should not be taken as a reflection of lack of US interest in enhancing cooperation with leading middle powers such as Australia, India and Japan.Īccordingly, a re-evaluation of the roles and preferences of Indo-Pacific middle powers is required, as some of our previously held assumptions need adjusting in light of the new context of great power competition. Many of these middle power states are rapidly departing from long-held security policies and priorities, as recently demonstrated in Japan’s National Security Strategy, Australia’s Defense Strategic Review, and South Korea’s Indo-Pacific Strategy.
Their middling economic and military capabilities are often combined with valuable geographic positioning around the flashpoints of potential conflict, or elevated social status in elite global clubs such as the G20 or OECD – making them important regional players whose roles and preferences cannot be ignored. But this dynamic is further complicated by the presence of a class of diverse but consequential second-tier states.
The Indo-Pacific is increasingly defined by strategic competition between the United States and China.
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