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U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy:
the role of minilateral agreements in shaping a new regional security architecture

Katkova E.Yu.,

RUDN University, Moscow, Russia, katkova-eyu@rudn.ru

ORCID: 0000-0002-2855-3163 | RESEARCHER_ID: S-6421-2017

Article received: 2025.09.02 22:29. Accepted: 2026.03.04 22:29


DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2026.03.14
EDN: RFNXON

Rubric: Reflecting on matters in print

For citation:

Katkova E.Yu. U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy: the role of minilateral agreements in shaping a new regional security architecture. – Polis. Political Studies. 2026. No. 3. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2026.03.14. EDN: RFNXON

Abstract

In recent years, the Asia-Pacific region has become an arena of increasingly intense great power confrontation, where the interests of several key global political players, including the US and China, intersect and compete. For decades, US policy in the region focused on maintaining its leadership through the creation of military alliances and ensuring security, promoting economic growth, and strengthening relations with regional countries. However, with China’s rise, the successful modernization of its army, and Beijing’s increasing influence in the region, this strategy was revised and formalized into a comprehensive vision of a “free and open Indo-Pacific region.” This strategic shift marked an ideological reconceptualization of the region, with the Indo-Pacific becoming a priority of American diplomacy, the instrument of which is currently the consolidation of collective efforts of regional allies to deter China. In the “Strategic Minilateralism and the Regional Security Architecture of the Indo-Pacific: The Quad, AUKUS, and the Trilateral Strategic Dialogue,” by T.S. Wilkins, a security expert in the Asia-Pacific and Indo-Pacific regions and an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney, an answer is provided to the question of how Washington’s approach to forming military partnerships in the region has changed in recent years, what are the strengths and weaknesses of existing alliances, and why the term “Asia-Pacific region” has disappeared from all conceptual documents of the US and its allies and been replaced by the phrase “Indo-Pacific region.” The analysis focuses on the phenomenon of revitalized “strategic minilateralism” as a key instrument of US policy to unite allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific for countering China’s growing influence. Three cases are examined – QUAD, AUKUS, and the US, Australia, and Japan Trilateral Strategic Dialogue, with an emphasis on their underlying concepts, functions (“hard” and “soft” balancing), as well as factors of their stability/fragility and scenarios for future development.

Keywords

Indo-Pacific region, minilateralism, USA, China, QUAD, AUKUS, Trilateral Strategic Dialogue, geopolitics, security, regional order.

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