Letter From the Editors

Dear Readers,

Welcome to the May 2018 issue of The Diplomat magazine.

This month’s issue is a little different. We’ve decided to give one set of ideas – specifically the free and open Indo-Pacific concept (FOIP for short) and the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (the Quad) – the whole front of the issue. These concepts have significance for the entire region, but their aims (and prospects) are interpreted quite differently, depending on whom you ask. Rather than condense the various interpretations, we wanted to lay out these separate, but interrelated, ideas and let experts examine them from the perspective of both proponents and those left out.

Our cover focuses on the Quad, with four vignettes that seek to illustrate the often complementary, though differing at times, perspectives of the four Quad countries: The United States, Japan, India, and Australia.

Jeff M. Smith, a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, charts the re-emergence of the Quad concept, a decade after it was first proposed, and why it has come back to life at this particular moment in history.

Yuki Tatsumi, co-director of the East Asia Program and Director of the Japan Program at the Stimson Center, then takes up the case of Japan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as the originator of the Quad in his first term as prime minister back in early 2007, has a unique stake in its success this time around.

Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, senior fellow and head of the Nuclear and Space Policy Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), lays out India’s perspective. In the years since the first Quad failed to take wing, India’s relationship with China has deteriorated. This, Rajagopalan argues, informs New Delhi’s revived interest in the concept, which would link India to a wider security network in Asia.

Rory Medcalf and David Brewster, head of college and senior research fellow, respectively, at Australian National University’s National Security College, present the view from Australia. For Australia, they write, the revived Quad is “a natural reflection of an evolving Indo-Pacific strategy of creative balancing and adaptive diplomacy.”

In the next three articles, we asked regional experts to put forth the views of other Asian powers on both the FOIP strategy and the revived Quad.

China’s government has yet to formally respond to the FOIP strategy, but Chinese scholars have been actively discussing the concept. Dingding Chen, a professor of International Relations at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China, dives into analyses from Chinese academics and discovers two common themes. First, FOIP and the Quad are both intended to further U.S. “containment” of China. And second, China might not need to worry, as both ideas face an uncertain future.

South Korea, like Australia and Japan, is a U.S. ally, and might seem a natural fit for the Quad. But the reality is more complicated, as Jaechun Kim, professor of International Relations at Sogang University, explains. South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in is attempting to balance between the United States and China, and will want more clarity on the FOIP concept before committing. But Kim argues that South Korea should use its concerns as a motive to shape the future of FOIP, and leave Seoul’s mark on regional diplomacy.

Last but certainly not least, Bilahari Kausikan, a veteran of Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, explains why ASEAN is “agnostic” on both the Quad and FOIP. Both are concerning to ASEAN, Kausikan writes, because they seem to jeopardize ASEAN centrality while also threatening to force Southeast Asian states to choose between the United States and China. Like South Korea, the Southeast Asian governments will wait to see how these concepts evolve before engaging.

We hope you enjoy these stories, and the many more within the following pages.