Book Launch: Strategic Minilateralism and the Regional Security Architecture of the Indo-Pacific
Presented by Assoc Prof Thomas Wilkins
July 31, 2025
Speaker
ASSOC PROF THOMAS WILKINS
Dr Thomas Wilkins is Associate Professor of International Security at the University of Sydney. He is also a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Japan Forum for International Relations (JFIR), Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Pacific Forum, and was a Japan Foundation Fellow at the Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) from 2023-2024. As a scholar and think tank policy analyst, Dr Wilkins specialises in regional security, alliances, and Japanese and Australian foreign policy, and has published over 100 works. His latest monograph Strategic Minilateralism and the Regional Architecture of the Indo-Pacific was published in 2025.
Discussant
MR RYOSUKE HANADA
Mr Ryosuke Hanada is a PhD candidate and Sessional Teaching Staff at the School of International Studies, Macquarie University. He was a Research Fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), researching Japan’s foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific region from 2016 to 2020. He experienced several fellowship programs, including the Japan-US Partnership Program of the Research Institute of Peace and Security (RIPS), Young Strategist Forum of the German Marshall Fund (GMF), Strategic Japan Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Indo-Pacific Fellow of the Perth USAsia Centre, and Raisina Young Fellow of Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in India. He holds Master of Research from Macquarie University, MA from the University of Warwick and BA in Law from Waseda University.
About the book
Strategic Minilateralism and the Regional Security Architecture of the Indo-Pacific: The Quad, AUKUS, and the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue presents research on minilateralism; a major new trend within the security architecture of the Indo-Pacific region that commands attention. It specifically focuses on the predominant sub-category of “strategic minilaterals” – exclusive small-group configurations of major powers driven by the imperatives of strategic competition in a bid to reshape the regional order. In a deteriorating Indo-Pacific security environment, a greater understanding of this phenomenon across its conceptual and applied dimensions is a priority for scholars and practitioners.
The book first accounts for the rise of strategic minilateralism as a response to strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific theatre. It then positions the resurgent phenomenon of minilateralism alongside multilateral organisations, military alliances and strategic partnerships within a three-layer taxonomical model that captures the changing nature of the security architecture in the Indo-Pacific. Following this, it generates a dedicated analytical framework for addressing the focal questions appertaining to “strategic minilaterals”, patterned around their design, functionality, and future solvency. The framework is then applied to probe the inner workings of the Quad, AUKUS and US-Japan Australia Trilateral Strategic Dialogue (TSD) to evaluate their relative strengths and weaknesses as instruments of strategic competition. The book’s distinctive contribution is to codify and conceptually substantiate strategic minilaterals as a significant new form of security alignment and situate them within their multiple external and internal operating contexts.
EVENT DETAILS
July 31, 2025 (Thursday)
6pm – 7:30pm AEST
25min presentation + 15min discussion + Q&A + 30min networking
Onsite & online via the JPF Sydney Facebook page
Free; Bookings not required
Video via Facebook.
No account or login required.
Check link for a video from 6:00pm on the day.
*There will be no video recordings available.
VENUE
For onsite attendance, find us at:
The Japan Foundation, Sydney
Level 4, Central Park
28 Broadway, Chippendale NSW 2008
ADMISSION
Free; bookings not required
ENQUIRIES
(02) 8239 0055
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