Indo-Pacific Studies Center
Strategic analysis for a contested Indo-Pacific.
IPSC is an independent strategic-analysis and policy institute examining the forces reshaping the Indo-Pacific. We combine structured regional monitoring, specialist research and senior practitioner expertise to assess strategic competition, security, economic coercion and geopolitical risk.
Institutional Depth
IPSC brings together senior practitioners, scholars and regional specialists with structured strategic monitoring and applied analysis across the Indo-Pacific.
A regional network spanning strategic policy, defence, diplomacy, security and political economy.
Senior academic, policy and practitioner expertise informing IPSC's regional perspective.
China, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Japan, India, maritime security and the wider Indo-Pacific.
Structured evidence, analyst judgement and practitioner expertise focused on consequential strategic change.
What IPSC Does
Evidence, analysis and strategic engagement.
IPSC connects strategic intelligence, specialist research, professional education and strategic dialogue. Each capability draws on the same regional evidence base while serving a different part of the analytical and decision-making process.
Strategic Intelligence
Structured monitoring and recurring assessment of developments changing the Indo-Pacific strategic environment.
- Indo-Pacific Strategic Dynamics
- Strategic Risk Matrix
- Signal monitoring and dashboards
- Indicators and strategic warning
Research
Specialist research centres examine strategic behaviour, escalation dynamics and regional change in the principal theatres IPSC monitors.
Professional Education
Applied programmes develop the capabilities required to understand strategic change, analyse geopolitical risk, formulate strategy and make decisions under uncertainty.
- Indo-Pacific security
- Geopolitical risk analysis
- Strategy and statecraft
- Strategic decision-making
Strategic Dialogue
IPSC brings practitioners and specialists together to test analysis, compare perspectives and examine consequential changes in the regional strategic environment.
- State of the Indo-Pacific
- Senior strategic roundtables
- Expert conversations
- Institutional and Track 1.5 engagement
The IPSC Approach
Evidence identifies change. Analysis determines why it matters. Dialogue tests the judgement. Education builds the capability to apply it.
About IPSC →Flagship Strategic Assessment
State of the Indo-Pacific
IPSC's recurring assessment of what changed across the Indo-Pacific strategic environment, why it matters and which indicators warrant attention next.
Current Assessment
September 2026 Edition
Assessment period · August 2026 · Strategic Dynamics Issue #002
The current assessment points to a month in which several of the most consequential developments were structural rather than episodic. Strategic pressure, military capability, economic dependencies and regional responses are increasingly interacting across domains rather than developing in isolation.
Legal, administrative, economic and maritime instruments are increasingly reinforcing one another.
Military and industrial developments increasingly matter through their durability and scale rather than signalling alone.
Regional responses are strengthening unevenly across alliances, defence capability, economic security and strategic resilience.
Analytical Foundation
Strategic Dynamics
Nine published strategic assessments and one deferred assessment across the continuing Power · Pressure · Response framework for the August reporting period.
Explore the Current Edition →Signal Monitoring
Structured monitoring helps identify concentrations, changes and anomalies across military, economic, technological, maritime and political activity.
Open the Signal Dashboard →Strategic Assessment
IPSC distinguishes observable evidence from analytical judgement and assesses significance across domains and over time.
Explore the Method →Strategic Intelligence
A connected system for tracking strategic change.
IPSC moves from structured signals to specialist assessment and regional synthesis. The system is designed to distinguish routine activity from developments that may alter strategic conditions, dependencies or response options.
Indo-Pacific Strategic Dynamics
IPSC's recurring assessment programme tracks strategic change across military power, deterrence, Taiwan, grey-zone activity, maritime chokepoints, economic coercion, technology, defence readiness, alliances and regional alignment.
Monthly regional and specialist cluster assessments.
Identify patterns and structural change across domains.
Strategic Risk Matrix
The matrix compares consequential developments across two dimensions: strategic impact and structural significance. Movement between editions helps show where pressure is becoming more consequential, more durable or both.
Strategic impact and structural significance.
Separate consequential change from routine activity.
The Strait Signal
A specialist monitor of cross-Strait escalation, coercive pressure, military activity, political signalling and changes in the wider deterrence environment surrounding Taiwan.
Escalation stages, pressure indicators and counter-signals.
Assess cumulative movement rather than isolated incidents.
Dashboard & Strategic Chokepoints
Interactive tools provide quantitative and spatial views of strategic pressure, allowing users to examine index movement, regional concentration and the maritime passages where geography, trade and coercion intersect.
Public aggregate trends across strategic pressure indices.
Geography, traffic, pressure and dependency across key passages.
Analytical Method
IPSC separates observable evidence from analytical judgement. Structured data, indicators and recurring measures inform the assessment, but quantitative outputs do not mechanically determine strategic conclusions.
Explore Strategic Intelligence →Regional Expertise
Senior expertise across the Indo-Pacific.
IPSC brings together senior practitioners, scholars and regional specialists across defence, diplomacy, strategic policy and regional security. The network adds national, thematic and practitioner perspectives to IPSC's research, analysis and strategic dialogue.
Australia · Global Advisory Board
Professor John Fitzgerald
Emeritus Professor, Swinburne University
China, Australia–China relations, civil society and territorial governance.
India · Global Advisory Board
Rear Admiral Sanjay Roye
Former Gujarat Naval Area Commander
Maritime security, naval strategy, nuclear affairs and strategic leadership.
Australia · Global Advisory Board
Professor Carlyle Thayer
Emeritus Professor, UNSW Canberra
Southeast Asia, Vietnam, regional security and major-power dynamics.
Japan · Global Advisory Board
Professor Haruko Satoh
Specially Appointed Professor, Osaka University
Japanese politics, regional diplomacy, nationalism, identity and Japan–Korea relations.
Japan · Distinguished Fellow
Dr Stephen Nagy
Professor, International Christian University
Indo-Pacific geopolitics, great-power competition, Japan and middle-power strategy.
India · Distinguished Fellow
Captain Sarabjeet Singh Parmar
Former Executive Director, National Maritime Foundation
Maritime doctrine, national strategy, lawfare, sea power and Indo-Pacific security.
Strategic Dialogue
From strategic analysis to informed discussion.
IPSC convenes practitioners, specialists and institutional leaders around consequential changes in the Indo-Pacific. Different formats allow published analysis to be examined, challenged and developed through expert and senior-level discussion.
State of the Indo-Pacific
A recurring strategic briefing presenting IPSC's assessment of what changed across the region, why it matters and which indicators warrant attention next.
- IPSC strategic assessment
- Monthly evidence and cluster findings
- Senior special guest conversation
- Audience discussion and questions
IPSC Strategic Roundtable
An invitation-only format for focused discussion of major strategic shifts, pressure points and emerging indicators across the Indo-Pacific.
- Small senior-level participation
- IPSC analytical pre-read
- Moderated strategic discussion
- Designed for candid exchange
Partnerships & Track 1.5 Dialogue
IPSC works with universities, policy institutions, regional organisations and specialist partners on research, strategic dialogue and professional exchange.
- Institutional partnerships
- Joint research and publications
- Regional strategic dialogue
- Track 1.5 policy engagement
How IPSC Convening Works
Dialogue begins with a defined analytical question, evidence base or strategic assessment rather than discussion in the abstract.
Participants and contributors are selected for the regional, professional or thematic perspective relevant to the issue being examined.
Discussion is used to challenge assumptions, identify competing interpretations and sharpen the questions that require further monitoring.
IPSC Research
Specialist research across the Indo-Pacific strategic system.
IPSC's research system combines country, regional and thematic expertise with strategic intelligence. Centres examine individual theatres and capabilities while contributing evidence to broader cross-regional assessments of strategic change.
Strategic Intelligence Unit
Strategic warning, change detection, escalation monitoring, pressure indicators and decision-relevant regional assessment.
Explore the UnitChina Strategic Insights
Chinese statecraft, military behaviour, strategic pressure, economic coercion, technology and the use of national power.
Explore the CentreCross-Strait Dynamics
Taiwan Strait escalation, military and grey-zone pressure, coercive signalling, crisis indicators and First Island Chain dynamics.
Explore the CentreBharat Research
Indian foreign and security policy, maritime posture, strategic autonomy, defence partnerships, technology and India's role in the regional balance.
Explore the CentreJapan Research
Defence transformation, alliance strategy, economic security, regional partnerships and Japan's changing strategic role.
Explore the CentreDefence, Deterrence & Military Innovation
Force posture, doctrine, military technology, deterrence, operational concepts and changes in regional capability.
Explore the CentreCyber, Emerging Technology & Security
Cyber operations, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, critical technologies, space and digital strategic competition.
Explore the CentreKorea Research
Nuclear and missile strategy, extended deterrence, alliance credibility, escalation and Northeast Asian security.
Explore the CentreCross-Centre Research
Centre research contributes to IPSC's wider monitoring, Strategic Dynamics assessments and strategic-intelligence products.
Regional developments can be examined simultaneously through country, military, economic, technological and escalation lenses.
Current centre research feeds into publications, strategic dialogue, fellowships and IPSC's professional education.
Professional & Executive Education
Build the capability to understand, analyse and act.
IPSC professional education connects current Indo-Pacific research and strategic intelligence to the capabilities professionals need to assess change, advise decision-makers, formulate strategy and act under uncertainty.
Regional Security Entry Point
Certificate in Indo-Pacific Security
A six-week applied program for professionals who need a structured understanding of the forces shaping security, deterrence and strategic competition across the Indo-Pacific.
Professional Capability Pathway
Four distinct capabilities. One clear progression.
The pathway moves from structured geopolitical-risk analysis through advanced regional assessment and strategy to executive decision execution. It is not a compulsory sequence; experienced professionals can enter at the level appropriate to their role.
Geopolitical Risk Fundamentals
Learn the core analytical method for identifying, structuring and communicating geopolitical risk.
Identify consequential change, assess exposure, structure uncertainty and brief decision-makers clearly.
Next intake · 30 September 2026
Explore the ProgramIndo-Pacific Geopolitical Risk Analysis
Develop advanced judgement across escalation, strategic competition, alliances, geo-economics, forecasting and organisational exposure.
Produce advanced Indo-Pacific risk assessments, scenarios, warning indicators and executive-level judgements.
Next intake · 11 January 2027
Explore the ProgramIndo-Pacific Strategy & Statecraft
Move from analysis to strategy by evaluating policy choices, anticipating counter-moves and examining the consequences of alternative courses of action.
Develop and stress-test strategic and policy options against constraints, responses and second-order effects.
Next intake · 29 October 2026
Explore the ProgramIndo-Pacific Strategic Decision-Making
Convert strategic change into executable decisions by defining ownership, decision windows, thresholds, triggers and authorised responses.
Move from strategic judgement to authorised, cross-functional action under uncertainty.
Next intake · 16 February 2027
Explore the ProgramResearch-Led Education
Participants work with contemporary Indo-Pacific developments alongside historical and conceptual material.
Programs use assessments, scenarios, briefs, option papers, indicators and decision frameworks rather than passive content delivery alone.
IPSC Strategic Intelligence and Research Centre work provides evidence, cases and live analytical problems across the education portfolio.
