Examining the latest developments in the Iran war and Japan’s re-invention as an autonomous player in Indo-Pacific security.

This week we examine the launch of a ‘major combat operation’ by the United States and Israel against Iran, the outbreak of all-out war between Pakistan and Afghanistan, China’s latest effort to turn the economic screws on Japan, Iceland looking to move up its referendum on EU membership, a hotter-than-expected inflation report in the United States, and Ukraine’s low-tech approach to shoring up drone defenses.

Taiwan matters to Japan: economically, diplomatically, and strategically. But while Tokyo cannot detach itself from Taiwan’s fate, neither can it afford to become too tightly bound to outcomes it does not control.

This week we cover escalating tensions between Japan and China, a timely intervention by President Trump to rescue the Thai-Cambodia peace process, Prime Minister Carney’s latest recommendations for Canada’s major projects drive, and the latest signs of a state capitalist renaissance in the West.

A speech from new Japan Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi helps fill in the blanks on what the next era of Japanese foreign policy will look like in Ukraine and elsewhere.

The decision by IP4 leaders to skip the recent NATO Hague summit reflects the ascent of more local geopolitical issues over NATO’s longstanding cross-regional diplomacy.

Japan’s massive rare earth mineral discovery could break China’s monopoly and recast bilateral relations between the two countries.