Resilience, meanwhile, has been defined various ways, with varying levels of detail. The four sections of this paper – Minerals and Technology Manufacturing Digital Economy and Adoption Inclusive Digital Transformation and Regimes – represent a ‘four-layer’ framework for analysis.Ĭonnectivity encapsulates technology trade, access to online services (where access is a spectrum, not a binary), as well as interoperable regimes, including data protection and cybersecurity.
It is within this milieu that this paper seeks to analyse regional connectivity and resilience. With governments, businesses and individuals forced to rely on online means for continuity, there is both a greater appreciation of the importance of digital spaces, services, and goods as well as greater scrutiny of bottlenecks created by ‘efficient’ global supply and value chains. Third, exposed by the trade war and heightened by the pandemic is the essentiality and fragility of global technology flows. The Quad has also gotten a new lease on life and, in October 2020, the foreign ministers of Japan, Australia, India, and the US met to discuss ‘secure digital connectivity’. For some, this has taken the form of enhanced investment into domestic technology capacity-building, investment in R&D and in skilling and education. While some countries in the region are holding onto a semblance of balancing their ties with both countries, several are shifting decades-old stances to adapt to changing dynamics. Second, there has been a search for regional and domestic alternatives due to the US–China trade war during the Trump administration. The vibrant digital ecosystem is buoyed by booming e-commerce and fintech applications and an engaged and wired user base: Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and India spend the most time online on their phones in the world. The region accounts for a little over half of the world’s internet users, and these users are primarily young and mobile: over 90 per cent access the internet using their phones. The first, the region is home to the largest, most rapidly growing internet user bases in the world. The emergent Digital Indo-Pacific concept is linked to four factors. India’s conception, driven by its broader political-economic vision, stretches from the horn of Africa to the western Pacific. The United States’ framing, being militarily driven, ends at the west coast of India with the US Indo-Pacific Command.
However, the Indo-Pacific also reflects distinct aspirations amongst those who use it. A relatively new entrant in geopolitical nomenclature, the ‘Indo-Pacific’ has since expanded to capture several ideas: the rule of law, balancing against China’s rise, strengthening regional institutions, and, most recently, securing technology and information flows.
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The Digital Indo-Pacific: Regional Connectivity and ResilienceĪt its heart, the Indo-Pacific is a term with its roots in the maritime realm, a confluence of security, economic, and geopolitical interests linked to free and open movement between the Pacific and Indian Oceans.