APC 2020 Dr Charles Edel: Great Powers and Regional Dynamics of the Indo-Pacific
BLUF
The US-led rules-based order is not facing an ideological struggle, it is facing a multi-layered, compounding series of threats.Summary
Great power revival has returned to replace great power peace and is pronounced across three regions of Eurasia: China-centric regional order, Russia-centric European order, and Iran's geopolitical revisionism in the Middle East. China and Russia, having combined their forces in recent times, seek to leverage their mutual contempt for the US-led world order. This stands to have the greatest impact on the Indo-Pacific region and the West more broadly. The least of which, in the period following the COVID-19 outbreak, is China's adoption of Russian disinformation campaigning on a more global scale. Whilst he does not believe the current hegemony is facing an 'all consuming struggle as it was during the Cold War' he does identify five inter-compounding, highly diverse dangers currently facing the West.