Manus Island is the geostrategic gateway to the South Pacific. It is ideally positioned to support offensive, defensive or humanitarian operations throughout the region.
After a three decade lull, great power competition has returned to Asia. This burgeoning strategic era will, however, be very different from what Australia has experienced in the past.
In national security affairs what often marks Australia’s experience is an insular imagination, a feature that is most striking when it comes to understanding the importance of the sea.
Indonesia realises that a substantial, strategic transformation is taking place in the 21st century. The centre-of-gravity of the geo-economic and geo-political world is shifting towards Asia.
This discussion articulates the complexity of developing a maritime strategy. Navies are an important aspect of the strategic maritime environment but they remain only one element of a nation’s strategy in the maritime domain.