| This week, as fresh tensions escalate across the Taiwan Strait, we revisit key analyses on the risks of crisis escalation and the pressing need for meaningful risk-reduction and confidence building measures in the region. Kristy Hsu’s report evaluates strategies for managing the Taiwan Strait crisis and maintaining regional stability and the final report from our Maritime Incidents and Escalation in the Asia-Pacific project offers recommendations for strengthening crisis avoidance mechanisms. Our latest webinar explores the emerging Taiwan policy of the Trump administration and its implications for the Cross-Strait status quo. We also spotlight the Sixth Meeting of the International Group of Eminent Persons for a World Without Nuclear Weapons (IGEP) held in Tokyo.
As always, we highlight recent activities from our network, including analysis on the impact of Trump’s foreign policy on East Asia, South Korea’s energy mix, Malaysia and the international legal framework, and more. |
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In Defence of the Status Quo: Stabilising Cross-Strait Relations under the Lai Ching-Te Administration
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Kristy Hsu writes on the evolving cross-strait relations under the Lai Ching-Te administration, analysing how Taiwan’s political landscape and public opinion are shaping the island’s future amid rising tensions with China. She notes that as international supply chains shift and the security situation around Taiwan develops, the ‘Silicon Shield’ may not protect Taiwan from a Chinese attack. The focus, she argues, should instead be on self-restraint and constructive dialogue to ease tensions across the Taiwan Strait and maintain the status quo.
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We explored these issues further in a recent webinar, where Kristy Hsu presented insights and recommendations from her APLN report, joined by Anne Hsiao, Ja Ian Chong, and APLN Senior Research Adviser Frank O’Donnell. Watch the full recording here.
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Crisis Avoidance: Preventing Dangerous Maritime Incidents and Unintended Escalation in the Asia-Pacific
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In this report, Tanvi Kulkarni, Frank O’Donnell, Shatabhisha Shetty, and Angela Woodward draw conclusions from the findings of a year-long APLN-VERTIC joint project on Maritime Incidents and Escalation in the Asia-Pacific. Based on regional dialogues and consultations with senior experts from across the Asia-Pacific, the authors conclude that six key factors contribute to the growing instability in the region’s maritime environment and make recommendations for how to strengthen crisis avoidance mechanisms.
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The Sixth Meeting of the International Group of Eminent Persons for a World Without Nuclear Weapons (IGEP)
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On March 30 and 31, the sixth meeting of the International Group of Eminent Persons for a World Without Nuclear Weapons (IGEP) was held in Tokyo. Four APLN members participated in the meeting:
- Manpreet Sethi, APLN Acting Director; Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Air Power Studies
- Tanya Ogilvie-White, APLN Senior Research Adviser
- Nobumasa Akiyama, Professor, School of International and Public Policy, Hitotsubashi University; Director of Center for Disarmament, Science and Technology, Japan Institute of International Affairs; APLN Senior Associate Fellow
- Tong Zhao, Senior Fellow, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The group recommended five principles and several recommendations to prevent nuclear war, stop arms racing and proliferation, and work for a constructive NPT Review Conference in 2026. The group members called upon Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and had a breakfast meeting with former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida who had started this initiative.
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APLN has over 160 members from 22 countries in the Asia-Pacific.
Each week we feature their latest contributions
to global and regional security debates.
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| Chung-in Moon, APLN Vice Chair, was interviewed by The Korea Times, where he argued that South Korea needs to reduce its security dependency on the US, strengthen its self-reliant defense capabilities, actively pursue preventive diplomacy to avoid war, reactivate dialogue and engagement with Pyongyang, pay more attention to open regionalism and multilateralism, and overcome the self-defeating politics of polarization in foreign policy. |
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| Eunjung Lim, Professor at the Division of International Studies at Kongju National University, wrote for The National Interest on the multilayered multipolarity of energy, arguing that renewable and nuclear energy must remain integral to South Korea’s energy mix. She also suggested that South Korea should diversify its imports of critical raw materials or increase domestic production and localization efforts in these supply chains. |
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| Van Jackson, APLN Senior Research Adviser and senior lecturer in international relations at Victoria University of Wellington, spoke at an event hosted by the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, where he shared insights from his new book, The Rivalry Peril, co-authored with Michael Brenes, on how great-power competition threatens peace and weakens democracy. |
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| Elina Noor, Senior Fellow in the Asia Programme at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, wrote for the South China Morning Post and emphasised that if Malaysia is serious about its credibility on the international legal stage and its commitment to the principles of justice, its leaders should seize the external momentum to initiate the country’s return to the Rome Statute. |
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