On Monday, 7 June 2010, The International Institute for Strategic Studies in collaboration with the Sydney-based Lowy Institute for International Policy, held a half-day workshop based on a recent Lowy Institute publication, Power and Choice: Asian Security Futures. This publication comes at a crucial time of flux and potential power transition in Asia with growing concerns about the decline in US strategic primacy and the lack of effective regional security cooperation. Based on the assumption that power distribution determines security orders and the scope for inter-state security cooperation, the workshop discussed four potential regional security futures, the potential for strategic shocks to favour particular futures and the choices for policy parameters that major and smaller powers in Asia should adopt to manage this uncertainty. The publication’s authors, Andrew Shearer, Malcolm Cook and Rory Medcalf made presentations on the individual themes of, respectively, power, shock and choice. Adam Ward, IISS Director of Studies, Nigel Inkster, IISS Director of Transnational Threats and Political Risk, and Dr Tim Huxley, IISS-Asia Executive Director, provided critiques of the approach taken in Power and Choice towards these themes. The workshop, held at the Shangri-La Hotel immediately following the 9th IISS Asia Security Summit: the Shangri-La Dialogue, drew diverse delegates including diplomats, policy-makers and academics.
