Titolo completo

Toward an Indo-Pacific consensus? Assessing current Indo-Pacific strategies and policies

While numerous actors are ‘pivoting’ to the Indo-Pacific through formal policies, scholarly research on such approaches is still underdeveloped. Against this backdrop, this research broadens the extant literature on countries’ and institutions’ engagement with the Indo-Pacific, by offering the first comprehensive investigation of existing policies focusing on this macro-region. To that end, it first contextualizes the latter’s significance and scholarly debates, prior to introducing the article’s theoretical and methodological framework. Next, it outlines 27 policies addressing either the Indo-Pacific or its sub-regions, issued by states and institutions from six continents. Subsequently, it identifies similarities, differences, and trends. The article finds a growing consensus on the Indo-Pacific, centred on both a broad regional vision – not just a security-based construct – and a geographical understanding portraying a large cross-regional entity, superseding earlier descriptors. By shedding light on significant yet under-explored developments, this research aims to make a useful contribution to the Indo-Pacific scholarship.