Mastering Policy & Strategy in the Indo-Pacific (MPSI)
Move beyond the slogans. Master the system.
Mastering Policy & Strategy in the Indo-Pacific (MPSI) is IPSC’s flagship executive certificate for professionals who operate at — or directly support — strategic decision-making in the Indo-Pacific.
The program is designed for practitioners, senior advisers, and policy analysts whose work must inform real decisions, not simply describe strategic environments. It focuses on how strategy is used under constraint — in government, multilateral institutions, defence, diplomacy, and policy-relevant research organisations.
MPSI is not an academic course. It is a judgement-focused, applied program for those responsible for shaping advice, managing risk, and framing options in uncertain and politically constrained environments.
The MPSI Difference
This is not an academic exercise. MPSI is built for the practitioner who needs disciplined, decision-ready strategic judgment.
Think systemically
Move beyond slogans to understand the Indo-Pacific as a functional strategic system.
Analyse like a practitioner
Strip away retrospective bias to see why states—great and middle powers—choose what they choose.
Design for reality
Navigate bureaucratic politics and domestic constraints where “good policy” often fails at implementation.
Communicate with impact
Shift from academic writing to decision-ready briefs, memos, and risk notes for senior audiences.
Program Architecture
The curriculum is structured into three phases to ensure cumulative learning toward strategic mastery.
- The strategic system: maritime space, chokepoints, and connectivity as the region’s operating logic.
- Power & state behaviour: apply multiple lenses to great-power competition and middle-power hedging.
- Strategic architecture: critically assess AUKUS, the QUAD, and ASEAN as functional instruments.
- Implementation realities: locate bottlenecks where intent meets bureaucratic and political reality.
- Security & risk dynamics: map escalation pathways and manage crises in maritime and grey-zone contexts.
- Strategic leverage: technology, supply chains, and geo-economic coercion as tools of statecraft.
- Case analysis: dissect real decisions from the decision-maker’s perspective under constrained choice.
- The capstone: produce a senior-level policy brief, strategic memo, or risk assessment note.
Strategic judgment in the Indo-Pacific
Strategy in the Indo-Pacific is shaped less by formal doctrine than by uncertainty, constraint, and consequence.
This short analysis reflects the Indo-Pacific Studies Center’s approach to policy and strategy: reading power signals, assessing trade-offs, and understanding how decisions are made when outcomes are not fully controllable.
The video outlines why strategic literacy — not technical expertise alone — has become central to policy, security, and economic decision-making across the region.
Senior policy and strategy professionals
Designed for mid- to senior-level practitioners in government, international organisations, think tanks, and corporates who require a structured, comparative understanding of Indo-Pacific strategic dynamics.
A toolkit for Indo-Pacific decision-making
Participants build a robust strategic toolkit spanning regional power dynamics, alliance management, policy design, scenario thinking, and risk framing—translating complex Indo-Pacific trends into clear options for ministers, boards, and senior executives.
8-week live online cohort
Delivered in a tightly structured format combining weekly live briefings, moderated discussion, and applied synthesis. Small cohort size maintains a high-engagement, briefing-style environment.
Weekly Program Outline (Indicative)
MPSI is delivered in an executive briefing-room format: weekly strategic framing, moderated discussion, and synthesis. The outline below signals scope and cadence; detailed materials are provided to confirmed participants.
Weeks 1–6 develop core strategic architecture and policy realism; Weeks 7–8 focus on applied synthesis, case work, and executive-level briefing output.
Master the core drivers of maritime space, chokepoints, and connectivity shaping Indo-Pacific strategy.
Apply multiple strategic lenses to great-power competition and middle-power hedging under constraint.
Critically assess the functional roles of AUKUS, the QUAD, and ASEAN—what they do, and what they cannot do.
Identify the bottlenecks where strategic intent meets bureaucratic politics, domestic constraints, and institutional bias.
Map escalation pathways and manage crises in maritime and grey-zone environments using disciplined risk framing.
Understand how technology, supply chains, and economic coercion generate leverage—and how to brief the risk cleanly.
Dissect a real-world decision from the decision-maker’s perspective: objectives, constraints, options, and second-order effects.
Synthesize learning into a decision-ready capstone document (policy brief, strategic memo, or risk note) and deliver a short briefing-style synthesis.
How MPSI Is Different
MPSI is designed for practitioners. It is discussion-led and oriented to executive judgement, not academic assessment.
This program is not
- A lecture-based course or passive webinar series
- A theory-heavy academic seminar with extensive readings
- An exam- or grades-driven credential program
- A forum for open-ended debate without synthesis
This program is
- Executive briefing-room style: framing, discussion, synthesis
- Focused on real-world policy constraints and trade-offs
- Designed for senior professionals and decision-support roles
- Delivered in small cohorts to maximise engagement and signal clarity
Program Leadership & Faculty
MPSI is delivered by IPSC’s faculty and invited practitioners. Program leadership is structured to ensure rigorous strategic framing, disciplined discussion, and decision-ready synthesis across all sessions.
Dr Hugh Tuckfield
Founder and Executive Director, Indo-Pacific Studies Center · Lead Faculty (MPSI)
Political theorist and practitioner-oriented strategist focused on Indo-Pacific regional order, alliance dynamics, and policy design under constraint.
Leads strategic framing across the program and anchors the applied judgement architecture that underpins the cohort.
Will Marshall
IPSC Non-Resident Fellow · Program Director (MPSI)
Oversees cohort delivery, seminar cadence, participant experience, and session facilitation support across the eight-week program.
Rear Admiral Sanjay Roye
Senior naval leader and strategic practitioner with 37 years of operational and executive experience across complex, high-risk environments. Expertise in strategic acquisitions, complex defence programs, and risk management under uncertainty.
Professor Carlyle Thayer
Southeast Asia security scholar and Vietnam specialist. Extensive academic and policy experience across UNSW, ANU, APCSS (Honolulu), and strategic advisory work focused on ASEAN, major power dynamics, and the South China Sea.
Live Cohorts by Time Zone
MPSI is delivered in live online cohorts aligned to participant time zones. Cohorts are scheduled by demand to protect a high-engagement, discussion-led briefing-room environment.
Time-zone focus: North & South America (UTC−5 to UTC−8).
Seminar window: 15:00–17:00 ET.
A compact cohort designed for high-engagement discussion, with places available for paid participants and IPSC Policy Fellows.
Time-zone focus: Europe, UK, Middle East & Africa (UTC 0 to UTC+3).
Cohort delivery is being sequenced and will proceed subject to confirmed demand for this intake.
Time-zone focus: South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia & the Pacific (UTC+5 to UTC+11).
Seminar window: 18:00–20:00 AEDT / 14:30–16:30 IST.
The primary intake for Cohort 1 and the program’s anchor discussion environment.
Tuition is regionally calibrated for currency and local market conditions; all delivered cohorts are equivalent in content and certification.