The Indo-Pacific: What’s in a Name?

In this essay in The American Interest, the Lowy Institute’s Rory Medcalf explains the rise of an Indo-Pacific conception of Asia. He argues that this emerging maritime super-region is defined in large part by China’s expanding economic and strategic horizons. To manage China’s entry to the Indian Ocean and India’s to the Pacific, an Indo-Pacific security order will need a third or ‘minilateral’ layer of cooperation, something between alliances and inclusive multilateralism.