How has security cooperation changed in the Asia-Pacific? Regional countries have increasingly carried out security cooperation activities with China, despite the absence of formal alliance ties. Yet there is a dearth of systematic data and analysis on China’s security cooperation with the region.
Park presents a new dataset of joint military exercises in the Asia-Pacific from 1970 to 2019 and examines variations in security cooperation patterns using network analysis and case studies. The key finding is that US allies and strategic partners increased joint military exercise with China after the 2000s.
She argues that the regional security cooperation network has become more inclusive, densely connected, and less centralized over time. These findings imply that countries in the Asia-Pacific today are much more connected to each other in the security realm than formal alliance patterns suggest.
Watch the recording here.