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History, identity, and norms shape defense cooperation

• Prior experience with colonization has left a legacy of sensitivity to alliance, perceived loss of autonomy, or dependence on a foreign power.
• Post–World War II identities are changing (e.g., Japan and South Korea).
• A country's identity as a great or rising power (e.g., India, Japan, and South Korea) is important.

State capacity and military capabilities are key drivers

• The resources devoted to external military cooperation can empower or constrain defense ties with a country's regional partners.
• Training, exercises, and exchanges can build critically important personal relationships.

Counterterrorism, intelligence sharing, and cyber and maritime law enforcement are paving the way for expanded cooperation

• There is substantial sensitivity in the region to being perceived as cooperating more deeply in the military and security domains when framed as a reaction to China's growing power and assertiveness.
• Countries have deepened security links by starting with or building up from counterterrorism cooperation.
• In Southeast Asia, counterpiracy efforts and cooperative efforts to counter illegal fishing, drug trafficking, and human smuggling provide routes for deepening security cooperation.

Deepening ties with nonaligned partners is a worthy goal

• Deepening ties may facilitate a greater alignment with the United States if other Asian countries, such as Japan, South Korea, or the Philippines, take the lead in deepening ties with such countries as India, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

Key U.S. allies, security partners, and diplomatic interlocutors in the Indo-Pacific have been establishing or deepening their defense ties by branching out, engaging with each other on high-level security consultations, selling or transferring defense articles, engaging in joint defense industrial development, carrying out bilateral training and exercises, and signing defense-related agreements. Today, these nations — Australia, Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea — are also cooperating with such non–U.S.-treaty countries as India, Indonesia, and Vietnam, which have aligned themselves more closely with the United States as China has grown both more powerful and more assertive in recent years. As a consequence, a set of important new linkages and security commitments among regional actors is forming, with substantial consequences for the United States, China, and the Indo-Pacific region.

This report highlights the extent to which regional actors' security initiatives are a response to the perceived threat posed by a rising, assertive China. This report also calls attention to the strong support that the United States continues to enjoy across the region, with numerous actors expanding their security partnerships out of a desire to reinforce the existing regional order centered on a set of U.S. alliances so as to help share the burdens of security maintenance. The analysis points out the importance of understanding the diverse motivations that regional actors have for expanding and deepening their regional security partnerships, and it highlights key areas for building partner capacity. Finally, the authors clarify which aspects of deepening security relationships derive from concerns about China and which stem from considerations other than balancing.

• Chapter One

  Introduction: Thickening the Web of Asian Security Cooperation

• Chapter Two

  Japan: Strengthening Defense Cooperation to Reinforce Region Order in the Shadow of a Rising China

• Chapter Three

  The Republic of Korea: Middle Power Diplomacy, "Asia's Paradox" Spur Expanding Defense Cooperation Under Constraints

• Chapter Four

  India: From Nonalignment to Engagement with Strategic Autonomy

• Chapter Five

  Australia: Expanding Defense Cooperation amid Alliance Dependency

• Chapter Six

  Indonesia: Growing Defense Cooperation in a Period of Transition

• Chapter Seven

  Vietnam: Seeking Partners Through Omnidirectional Engagement

• Chapter Eight

  The Philippines: Modernization with a More Diverse Set of Partners

• Chapter Nine

  Conclusions: The Future of a Densely Networked Indo-Pacific Defense Community