International relations are experiencing a period of profound uncertainty and fragmentation, driven by a deepening polycrisis in which geopolitical rivalry, technological competition, climate change, economic instability, and supply chain disruptions reinforce one another alongside intensifying great-power competition. These shifts are particularly striking in the Indo-Pacific region, where strategic competition, economic interdependence, the race for technological supremacy, and geopolitical realignment are all intertwined ; growing uncertainty surrounds the regional landscape.

Argument

The Amidex Democratic Alliance in the Indo-Pacific project will hold its final conference on March 18-19-20, 2027 after a series of webinars and a conference in 2026 that focused on several actors in the Indo-Pacific region, such as the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Japan, India, or France, their differing visions of the “Indo-Pacific” space, their soft power, and the multiple conceptions of a “Democratic Alliance”–including an alliance of democratic countries, an alliance that functions democratically, an alliance that serves democratic goals, and as a rhetorical tool to incite cooperation.

International relations are experiencing a period of profound uncertainty and fragmentation, driven by a deepening polycrisis in which geopolitical rivalry, technological competition, climate change, economic instability, and supply chain disruptions reinforce one another alongside intensifying great-power competition. While the U.S.-led alliance system established after World War II has long underpinned the peace and stability of the liberal international order, the increasingly unpredictable foreign policies of major powers, closer cooperation among authoritarian states, and the erosion of the order’s institutional, normative, and leadership foundations have raised fundamental questions about its sustainability. These shifts are particularly striking in the Indo-Pacific region, where strategic competition, economic interdependence, the race for technological supremacy, and geopolitical realignment are all intertwined ; growing uncertainty surrounds the regional landscape. Accordingly, along with questions about the sustainability of the existing U.S.-centered hub-and-spoke alliance system, discussions regarding alliance networks and new models of cooperation are intensifying. Key actors in the Indo-Pacific region (including European actors such as the European Union, France or the United Kingdom) are responding to the changing order through flexible strategies such as hedging, strategic autonomy, minilateral cooperation, and multi-alignment.

Against this backdrop, this conference examines how democratic states can strengthen cooperation or adapt their partnerships to emerging challenges in the Indo-Pacific. The conference will explore the future of alliance networks, changing patterns of regional security and governance, and the role of democratic alliances in shaping the Indo-Pacific order. Through these discussions, it aims to seek new directions for cooperation to enhance resilience, stability, and a rules-based regional order in an increasingly uncertain global environment.

The conference welcomes papers from various perspectives that involve the study of democratic alliances in the Indo-Pacific. These may include theoretical approaches or case studies that employ qualitative or quantitative methods. Historical perspectives that illuminate contemporary questions may also be considered.

Among the priorities for the conference are :

• Structural questions including multilateral and minilateral institutions, international orders (rules-based or otherwise) in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Studies of exogenous or endogenous actors in the Indo-Pacific ; non-state or substate actors such as NGOs, businesses and think tanks.
• The tools of alliance and partnership building in the region : defense diplomacy, military cooperation and treaty alliances ; technology and geopolitical realignments ; economic partnerships, economic/development aid, and supply chain questions ; climate, health and other transnational issues.
• Domestic politics and the relationship with/in the Indo-Pacific.
• Discursive practices and the instrumentalization of “democracy”, the “rules-based international order,” the “free and open Indo-Pacific,” and other structuring concepts.

Submission Guidelines

Proposals should include :

• A paper title
• A 150–200-word abstract outlining the paper’s main argument and its relevance to the conference theme
• A short biographical note (including institutional affiliation, current position, and relevant publications)

Please submit proposals by October 5, 2026 to : daip.sciencesconf.org

Notification of acceptance will be sent by late November 2026.

Scientific Committee

• Prof. Nicolas Badalassi (Sciences Po Aix),
• Prof. Frédéric Heurtebize (Université Paris Sorbonne
  nouvelle),
• HRH Sultan Nazrin Muizzuddin Shah (Chancellor of the University of Malaya),
• Prof. Pauline Schnapper (Université Sorbonne nouvelle),
• Prof. Robert Sutter (George Washington
  University),
• Prof. Mélanie Torrent (Université d’Amiens), Prof. Ben Wellings (Monash University).

Bibliography

Cannon, Brendon J. “The Quad as Catalyst : Informality, Minilateralism, and the Latticework of Eurasian Security Architecture,” Australian Journal of International Affairs (2025).

Cha, Victor D. Powerplay : The Origins of the American Alliance System in Asia. Princeton University Press, 2016.

Chatham House. Competing Visions of International Order : Fracturing the US-Led Liberal International Order. London : Chatham House, 2025.

Green, Michael J. By More Than Providence : Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific since 1783. Columbia University Press, 2017. 

Ikenberry, G. John. Liberal Leviathan : The Origins, Crisis, and Transformation of the American World Order. Princeton University Press, 2011.

Izumikawa, Yasuhiro. “Network Connections and the Emergence of the Hub-and-Spokes Alliance System in East Asia,” International Security 45(2) : 7–50 (2020). 

Li, Hansong. “The ‘Indo-Pacific’ : Intellectual Origins and International Visions in Global Contexts,” Modern Intellectual History 19(3) : 807–833 (2022).

Medcalf, Rory. Indo-Pacific Empire : China, America and the Contest for the World’s Pivotal Region. Manchester University Press, 2020.

Mearsheimer, John J. “Bound to Fail : The Rise and Fall of the Liberal International Order,” International Security 43(4) : 7–50 (2019).

Panda, Jagannath & Ohn, Daewon. “Minilateralism and the new Indo-Pacific order : theoretical ambitions and empirical realities”, Australian Journal of International Affairs, 78(6) (2024).

Stubb, Alexander. The Triangle of Power : Rebalancing the New World Order. Biteback Publishing, 2026.

Tooze, Adam. “Polycrisis — is this the sequel ?”, Financial Times (6 September 2025).

Wilkins, Thomas S. Strategic Minilateralism and the Regional Security Architecture of the Indo-Pacific. Springer, 2024.