This paper argues that if Donald Trump wins a second term in the upcoming election, the rest of the world will conclude that the United States has fundamentally changed and is no longer committed to the traditional leadership role it has played since the Second World War.

As the prospect of high-intensity military conflict in the Indo-Pacific becomes more likely, Beijing, Washington and Canberra will need to manage nuclear risks more proactively.

COVID-19 presents new challenges to the existing governance objectives of USAID’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, especially as great power competitors, like China, use the pandemic as a vehicle to further exacerbate existing democratic backsliding, corruption and disinformation.

This working paper argues that the Trump administration’s policy experiment on China has failed to curb Chinese behaviours of concern or elicit Chinese concessions on American priorities. China has grown more repressive at home and more assertive in pursuit of its external ambitions. These outcomes have not made the American people safer or more prosperous.

The purpose of this report is to review Australian experience of peace processes and suggest possible approaches for strengthening them.