Join hosts Ray Powell and Jim Carouso as they delve into the crucial issues defining the 21st century's pivotal region--one that spans from Hollywood to Bollywood. Learn to navigate its most important geopolitical, economic, military, environmental and cultural challenges, with a practical emphasis on why it matters. Hosted by seasoned diplomatic and national security practitioners, each episode offers insightful analysis and thought-provoking discussions. From bustling cities like Beijing, Mumbai and Tokyo, through the diverse countries of Southeast Asia, down to the Australian Outback and the pristine islands of the South Pacific, expert guests help Jim and Ray explore the region's defining issues, emergent crises and future trajectories. Discover the interplay of the U.S.-China strategic competition against the interests of rapidly emerging powers like India and Indonesia. Explore the complexities of regional alliances old and new like ASEAN, AUKUS and "the Quad". Understand the forces driving hotspots like the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan Strait, South China Sea and the China-India border ... and most importantly, why we should care.

Infographic of China's artificial islands in the South China Sea overlaid with the Philippines' rights under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Join hosts Ray Powell and Jim Carouso as they delve into the crucial issues defining the 21st century's pivotal region--one that spans from Hollywood to Bollywood. Learn to navigate its most important geopolitical, economic, military, environmental and cultural challenges, with a practical emphasis on why it matters. Hosted by seasoned diplomatic and national security practitioners, each episode offers insightful analysis and thought-provoking discussions. From bustling cities like Beijing, Mumbai and Tokyo, through the diverse countries of Southeast Asia, down to the Australian Outback and the pristine islands of the South Pacific, expert guests help Jim and Ray explore the region's defining issues, emergent crises and future trajectories. Discover the interplay of the U.S.-China strategic competition against the interests of rapidly emerging powers like India and Indonesia. Explore the complexities of regional alliances old and new like ASEAN, AUKUS and "the Quad". Understand the forces driving hotspots like the Korean Peninsula, Taiwan Strait, South China Sea and the China-India border ... and most importantly, why we should care.

Philippine vlogger and journalist Richard Heydarian talks to SeaLight Director Ray Powell about ongoing tensions in the West Philippine Sea.

Managing Chinese Gray Zone Activity in the South China Sea and Indian Ocean Region

Ray Powell is the Director of SeaLight, a maritime transparency initiative of the Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation at Stanford University, and a member of the South China Sea NewsWire Advisory Board. This interview was conducted on March 12, 2024.

How does a government respond to a threat or coercion by a larger and better-resourced military? That is a question faced by countries across the Indo-Pacific when it comes to actions conducted by the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Taiwan and the Philippines have experienced similar, yet unique, forms of PRC coercion that have resulted in both capitals developing analogous responses that fall within an analytical spectrum. This report focuses on how these two Indo-Pacific countries responded to actions conducted by the military apparatus of the PRC since 2022.

Headstart: Karen Davila talks to Maritime Security Expert Ray Powell for his insights on the latest incident of 'dangerous maneuvers' by China in the West Philippine Sea.

Ray Powell joins the program to discuss his recent work “Game Changer: The Philippines’ Assertive Transparency Campaign: How the Philippines Rewrote the Counter Gray Zone Playbook in 2023.”

Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative report tracking the dramatic increase in PRC and Philippine ships during resupply missions at Second Thomas Shoal over time.

A West Philippine Sea monitor on Monday said China is sending a “huge force” in Scarborough (Panatag) Shoal ahead of the civilian convoy there, but organizers remain undeterred by what they branded as Beijing’s “intimidation.”

The Philippines on Saturday deployed ships to a disputed area in the South China Sea, where it accused the People’s Republic of China (PRC) of building an “artificial island” amid the two Asian countries’s ongoing conflict over the territory, the office of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in a statement.

As reserves closer to shore run dry, Malaysia is venturing farther into disputed waters of the South China Sea claimed and patrolled by China.

A U.S. guided-missile destroyer sailed through the Paracel Island chain in the South China Sea on Friday as part of a Freedom of Navigation Operation, U.S. 7th Fleet announced on Friday. USS Halsey (DDG-97) tested Beijing’s restrictions on sailing past the Chinese-controlled islands that run counter to the United Nations Law of the Sea Convention.

The clear and present maritime threat from China in the South China Sea is compelling the Philippines to step up its newly-announced defense strategy and modernization of its arsenal.

An emerging quadrilateral group, between the U.S., Japan, Australia and the Philippines, has become the core of Washington's foreign security policy in the Indo-Pacific, quickly overtaking the Quad in priority, analysts say.

The possibility that China will abandon hope of peacefully reuniting with Taiwan is still "more dangerous" to regional and global peace than the continued escalation of tensions in the South China Sea, the head of a US-based maritime transparency project said Monday.

The Albanese government has lodged a protest after a Chinese fighter jet dropped flares near a navy helicopter, forcing it to take evasive action in Beijing’s latest confrontation with Australian military personnel.

With three of its warships now reaching Singapore, India is all set to conduct naval exercises with `friendly’ countries in the contentious South China Sea, where a belligerent Beijing is locked in territorial disputes with its neighbours.

China's intrusive and expansionist claims in the Indo-Pacific are "illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive," the new commander of the Indo-Pacific Command said Friday at a change of command ceremony in Hawaii.