Geopolitical Risk, Grand Strategy, and Alliance Management
An intensive executive certificate focused on strategic competition, defence innovation, and alliance management in the Indo-Pacific. Delivered live across three regional time-zone streams — each with its own regional pricing. Same program. Same faculty. Same IPSC certificate. Cohorts capped at 30 participants per stream for a high-engagement, briefing-style learning environment.
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Strategic risk training built from within the region
The IPSC Executive Certificate in Geopolitical Risk, Grand Strategy & Alliance Management is a practitioner-led intensive designed for professionals navigating the most consequential security and strategic dynamics shaping the Indo-Pacific today. Delivered live and taught entirely from within the region, the program is led by experts actively engaged in defence strategy, alliance management, risk intelligence, and Indo-Pacific security affairs. It is the only live executive program of its kind in the Indo-Pacific that integrates real-time risk analysis, strategic competition modelling, and alliance-based deterrence frameworks grounded in frontline regional expertise.
Strategic risk capability for a decisive region
The Indo-Pacific is now the central theatre of great-power rivalry — where defence modernisation, alliance formation, economic coercion, and technological disruption intersect. This program is built for professionals who must brief, assess, and make decisions in an environment shaped by accelerating strategic risk.
The Indo-Pacific is the frontline of global competition
Escalating military build-ups, new security architectures, and shifting power balances are redefining regional stability. Leaders who cannot interpret these dynamics will struggle to provide credible guidance to governments, industry, or multinational organisations.
Institutions now demand Indo-Pacific risk-literate professionals
Defence agencies, corporates, multilaterals, and financial institutions increasingly require advisers who understand deterrence, alliances, military capability trends, supply-chain exposure, and geopolitical escalation pathways. This program builds that analytical capability.
Risk strategy taught from inside the region
Participants learn directly from experts embedded in Indo-Pacific defence, security, and strategic affairs. Instruction is grounded in real-time analysis, alliance behaviour, and frontline assessments — ensuring practical, applied insights that directly inform policy, corporate strategy, and risk advisory work.
Choose Your Stream
One program. Three parallel live cohorts. Identical curriculum, faculty, and IPSC Certificate in every stream – with seminar times aligned to your region. All streams are capped at 30 seats and applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.
Participants may enrol in any stream, regardless of where they are based. Pricing is displayed in each stream’s dominant currency to support accessibility and parity. We recommend choosing the cohort whose seminar times align best with your workday.
Geopolitical Risk, Grand Strategy & Alliance Management
This IPSC Executive Certificate develops the strategic risk capability required to assess Indo-Pacific security dynamics and translate them into clear, decision-ready insights for senior leaders.
Program Overview
Geopolitical Risk, Grand Strategy & Alliance Management
A practitioner-led, graduate-level executive program that sharpens the ability to interpret great-power competition, military capability trends, alliance behaviour, and regional deterrence dynamics. Participants learn to convert complex Indo-Pacific security developments into actionable, high-impact assessments for leaders in government, defence, intelligence, corporate strategy, and international organisations.
Who Should Enrol
This program is designed for professionals who work at the intersection of security, strategy, risk, and regional intelligence, including:
- Government, foreign ministries, and and national security agencies
- Strategic industries, defence primes, and critical technologies
- Risk intelligence, geopolitical advisory, and corporate security units
- Think tanks, research centres, and multilateral institutions
- Consulting, corporate strategy, and global risk & compliance teams
- Academia and analysts working on Indo-Pacific security and statecraft
- Graduate students seeking advanced specialisation in defence, alliances, and geopolitical risk
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the program, participants will be able to:
- Interpret major-power rivalry, defence modernisation, and alliance behaviour across the Indo-Pacific
- Assess strategic competition dynamics, including deterrence structures, capability shifts, and escalation pathways
- Evaluate military, maritime, technological, and geopolitical risks using practitioner-level frameworks
- Analyse regional flashpoints and risk implications for policy, business, and global operations
- Produce concise, decision-ready strategic and risk assessments for senior leaders
- Communicate complex strategic insights to government, corporate, and international audiences with clarity and authority
Career Pathways & Professional Value
The IPSC Executive Certificate in Geopolitical Risk, Grand Strategy & Alliance Management supports advancement into high-impact roles across government, defence, industry, and global strategy.
Government, Policy & International Affairs
Career pathways across policy divisions, strategic analysis units, risk and intelligence teams, defence ministries, foreign ministries, interagency coordination roles, and regional security desks.
Defence, Military & Strategic Planning
Roles in capability development, force modernisation, alliance management, wargaming and futures, strategic assessments, defence innovation, and operational-level planning environments.
Business, Finance & Global Consulting
Positions in geopolitical risk advisory, strategic forecasting, corporate security, supply-chain risk, energy and resources strategy, emerging markets, regulatory analysis, and scenario planning.
Technology, Critical Infrastructure & Strategic Industries
Roles in technology governance, cyber strategy, critical technology tracking, dual-use technology policy, and infrastructure risk analysis.
International Organisations & Multilateral Institutions
Work in strategic planning, program design, regional cooperation, crisis response, and institutional risk frameworks across organisations operating in the Indo-Pacific.
Program Structure
Core 8-Week Program
Week 1 — Strategic Operating Environment: Grand Strategy & FOIP
Executive briefing on defining the Indo-Pacific; deep dive into the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy and FOIP; strategy-gap critique. Builds the ability to evaluate strategy documents and identify alignment vs. hedging.
Week 2 — Great Power Dynamics & Regional Influence
Analysis of China’s strategic aims and long-term objectives; middle-power hedging; power-index forecasting. Develops regional expertise and strategic planning capability using empirical indicators.
Week 3 — Alliance Architecture & Deterrence: QUAD & AUKUS
Operationalising the Quad and understanding AUKUS technology flows; impact on defence spending and regional stability; burden-sharing and alliance strengthening. Focus on diplomacy and security cooperation.
Week 4 — Defence Futures: Innovation, Modernisation & Risk Modelling
Examination of the "five revolutions" in defence technology; ISR, naval and air-power evolution; hotspot monitoring using Janes and defence intelligence. Builds futures analysis and capability-shifts assessment.
Week 5 — Regional Economic Drivers & Financial Risk
IMF and World Bank regional outlooks; supply-chain vulnerability and diversification; trade exposure under CPTPP/RCEP. Strengthens economic risk interpretation for Indo-Pacific markets.
Week 6 — Development Finance, Infrastructure & Regional Institutions
ADB/AIIB development strategy; CSIS infrastructure success criteria; ASEAN, APEC, PIF governance dynamics. Builds multilateral analysis and understanding of regional institutional behaviour.
Week 7 — Technology & Cyber Strategy: AI, Critical Infrastructure & Emerging Threats
ASPI Critical Technology Tracker; CNAS “Cyber Crossroads”; AI vulnerabilities in regional infrastructure. Builds technology-policy literacy and cyber strategy capability across the Indo-Pacific.
Week 8 — Flashpoints, Scenario Planning & Strategic Synthesis
Taiwan Strait and South China Sea crisis modelling; legal frameworks for maritime claims; business continuity and economic impact planning. Final synthesis into executive-level strategic briefs.
Pre-Register for the Program
Start your application and join the next cohort.
What Participants Say About IPSC Executive Programs
Program Director
Dr Hugh Tuckfield — Founder & Executive Director, IPSC
Dr Hugh Tuckfield is a political theorist and strategic affairs specialist with expertise spanning geopolitics, defence policy, and regional governance across the Indo-Pacific. As Founder and Executive Director of the Indo-Pacific Studies Center (IPSC), he leads multidisciplinary teams of fellows and regional research associates working across AUKUS, QUAD, maritime strategy, digital geopolitics, and regional risk.
Hugh has served in senior policy and advisory roles across the Australian and New Zealand governments, and has held fellowships at Oxford University and the WZB Berlin Social Science Centre. His work focuses on strategic competition, democratic resilience, and the future of regional order in the Indo-Pacific.
He directs the IPSC Executive Certificate in Mastering Policy & Strategy in the Indo-Pacific, bringing practical policy expertise, high-level strategic thinking, and a deep commitment to developing the next generation of Indo-Pacific leaders.
Our Global Board, Distinguished Fellows & Senior Fellows
Swipe on mobile or scroll horizontally to explore the IPSC leadership across the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
Professor John Fitzgerald
Global Advisory Board Member
Australia / Swinburne University
Bernice Glenn Kissinger
Global Advisory Board Member
United States / Managing Member, Kissinger Advisors, LLC
Col (Ret.) Paddy Hallinan
Global Advisory Board Member
Australia / Senior Advisor and Mentor
Captain Sarabjeet Singh Parmar (Retd)
Global Advisory Board Member
India / Former Executive Director, National Maritime Foundation
Rear Admiral Sanjay Roye AVSM, VSM (Retd)
Global Advisory Board Member
India / Former Gujarat Naval Area Commander, Indian Navy
Professor Haruko Satoh
Global Advisory Board Member
Japan / Specially Appointed Professor, Osaka University
Professor Carlyle Thayer
Global Advisory Board Member
Australia / Emeritus Professor, UNSW Canberra
Uma Sudhindra
Global Advisory Board Member
India / Director, XD Defence Systems
Stephen Nagy
Distinguished Fellow
Professor of Politics and International Studies, International Christian University, Japan
Dr. Dattesh D. Parulekar
Distinguished Fellow
Professor of International Security, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Dr. Brendon J. Cannon
Distinguished Fellow
Professor of International Security, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
Dr. Jagannath Panda
Distinguished Fellow
Head of Stockholm Centre for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA) at the Institute for Security and Development Policy (ISDP), Sweden
Dr. Kumari Mansi
Distinguished Fellow
MoFA Taiwan Fellow at the National Chengchi University (NCCU) in Taipei, Taiwan
Natalie Treloar
Senior Fellow
Deterrence, geopolitics and strategic alliances
Dr. Ramanand N. Garge
Senior Fellow
Security / IR
Prof. Pradeep Nair PhD, FRAS, FRGS
Senior Fellow
Climate
Captain James JB Park
Senior Fellow
Non-resident James A. Kelly Korea Studies Fellow