The United States and Asia's four flashpoints

The United States and Asia's four flashpoints

When

6.00pm–7.30pm

8 October 2018

Where

University of Sydney, Abercrombie Building

Type

Launch event

Major power competition has returned to Asia. China’s regional ambitions are continuing to expand alongside its increasingly sophisticated armed forces. North Korea’s nuclear arsenal has not been eradicated. Japan and Australia are building up their militaries. And the United States, for so long a stabilising presence in the region, is struggling to form a coherent Asia strategy in the face of erratic policy pronouncements by President Donald Trump. From the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan to the South and East China Seas, the possibility of catastrophe looms ever closer.

What are the risks of strategic competition in Asia? How might regional flashpoints escalate to conflict? And what can Indo-Pacific countries do to reduce the risk of war?

Brendan Taylor, author of new book The Four Flashpoints and Associate Professor of Strategic Studies at the Australian National University, joined Alliance 21 Fellow Madelyn Creedon and Ashley Townshend, the Centre’s Director of Foreign Policy and Defence, for a discussion of these critical geopolitical questions.

This event was the Sydney launch of Brendan Taylor’s The Four Flashpoints: How Asia Goes to War published by La Trobe University Press.

Featuring

  • Dr Brendan Taylor
    Dr Brendan Taylor

    Dr Brendan Taylor is an Associate Professor of Strategic Studies at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs. He is the author of The Four Flashpoints: How Asia Goes to War.

  • Madelyn Creedon
    Madelyn Creedon
    Alliance 21 Fellow, United States Studies Centre

    Madelyn Creedon is the 2018 Alliance 21 Fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. She has had a long and distinguished career in US government service, most recently as Principal Deputy Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) within the Department of Energy, a position she held from 2014 to 2017.

  • Ashley Townshend
    Ashley Townshend
    Non-Resident Senior Fellow, United States Studies Centre

    Ashley Townshend is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the United States Studies Centre and Senior Fellow for Indo-Pacific Security at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the founding co-chair of the annual US-Australia Indo-Pacific Deterrence Dialogue and was the Director of Foreign Policy and Defence at the United States Studies Centre from June 2017 to June 2022.

The Foreign Policy and Defence Program receives funding support from the following partners