The Japan Chair is delighted to invite Rory Medcalf, Professor and Head of the National Security College at the Australian National University, to discuss his new book, Indo-Pacific Empire: China, America and the contest for the world’s pivotal region. Please join us virtually to learn about the Indo-Pacific region and the potential for great power conflict between the United States and China.

In the Spring 2020 special issue of Orbis, nine articles assess political warfare in, and emanating from, East Asia. Authoritarian regimes in Asia, including China and North Korea, use the weapons of political warfare and the tools of sharp power to influence, and sometimes undermine, other polities. Political warfare includes overt and covert use of diplomatic, political, economic, and information means to affect policy-making or the political context affecting decision-making in another state. In East Asia, the techniques are deployed against immediate neighbors and far-away targets and rivals. Political warfare particularly exploits the characteristic vulnerabilities of open societies and liberal-democratic polities, including businesses that seek access, new and traditional media that are porous to foreign influence, publics that are receptive to divisive and bias-confirming messages, civil society structures and educational and cultural spaces that provide unguarded points of entry, and politicians eager for foreign and economic policy wins and campaign donations.