The concept of the “Indo-Pacific” would first be used by strategic thinkers in India and Australia from around 2005. It was then subsequently picked up by the governments in New Delhi and in Canberra. These early adopters were followed by Japan, whose long-serving Prime Minister Shinzō Abe had already spoken in 2007 about the confluence of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, with policy-relevant ideas crystallising later around the idea of a “free and open Indo-Pacific.” In the United States, the Indo-Pacific entered the foreign policy lexicon in 2010, in the context of the US “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific region. Under the Donald Trump administration, the US mainstreamed the “free and open Indo-Pacific” as a policy concept during a tour of the president to the region in 2017. It then adopted, in 2018, a national-security strategy for the Indo-Pacific region, and renamed its former Pacific Command the “United States Indo-Pacific Command.”
A number of European countries, beginning with France, have also embraced this Indo-Pacific terminology. On 2 May 2018, at the headquarters of the Royal Australian Navy at Garden Island (Sydney), President Emmanuel Macron presented the French strategy in this region. The latter was then elaborated in a French Foreign Ministry policy paper. In October 2020, the German Foreign Ministry published a similar policy paper outlining its own vision for the region. A month later, the Dutch Foreign Ministry published its version too. Moreover, the United Kingdom government has heralded a “pivot to the Indo-Pacific” as part of its quest for a “Global Britain” emerging out of Brexit.
Unfortunately, few Westerners – and particularly Europeans – have sought to understand the views and approaches of actors within the Indo-Pacific itself. The Franco-German Observatory of the Indo-Pacific seeks to fill this vacuum. There is a need to better understand especially the vital link between domestic political developments in these countries and their implications for regional dynamics in the wider Indo-Pacific.
The Franco-German Observatory will invite key actors from the Indo-Pacific to present their vision of the region, how they conceive of it geo-strategically and the place of China, the US, and Europe within this framework. We look forward to debating questions of economic interdependence and independence, of trade and investment, and the expectations the countries of the Indo-Pacific might have towards the ‘West’ in general, and Europe, in particular’.
Wednesday, 19 May, 09:30‒10:30 a.m. (CET) | 5:30‒06:30 p.m. (Australia).
Speaker:
Prof. Dr. Rory Medcalf has been Head of the National Security College (NSC) at the Australian National University since January 2015. He has led the expansion of the College into policy engagement and futures analysis, as well as education, executive development and research, repositioning the College as 'more than a think tank'. His professional background involves three decades of experience across diplomacy, intelligence analysis, think tanks, academia and journalism.
Chairs & Moderation:
Prof. Dr. Patrick Köllner is Vice President of the GIGA and Director of the GIGA Institute for Asian Studies.
David Camroux is Honorary Research Fellow and Adjunct Professor, Sciences Po-CERI.
Information on participating / attending:
We would like to ask you to register for this event. The registration is free of charge.
Date:
05/19/2021 09:30 - 05/19/2021 10:30
Event venue:
Online event
German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA)
Hamburg
Hamburg
Germany
Target group:
all interested persons
Email address:
Relevance:
international
Subject areas:
Economics / business administration, Politics, Social studies
Types of events:
Presentation / colloquium / lecture
Entry:
05/06/2021
Sender/author:
Verena Schweiger
Department:
Fachabteilung Kommunikation
Event is free:
yes
Language of the text:
English
URL of this event: http://idw-online.de/en/event68663
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