Why Should We Care About the Indo-Pacific?

We picture China as a place where no one dares speak out, but the reality is quite different. In 2025, despite one of the most sophisticated censorship machines on earth, workers protested over unpaid wages, homebuyers demanded stalled apartments, and rural communities pushed back against land dispossession. In this episode, hosts Ray Powell and Jim Carouso sit down with Kevin Slaten, who leads Fr...

What if the most important strategic relationship of the 21st century is the one Washington is actively damaging? In this episode, hosts Ray Powell and Jim Carouso sit down with Kurt Campbell - former Deputy Secretary of State, President Biden's "Asia czar," a key figure in building the modern Quad, and founder of The Asia Group - to ask whether the U.S. and India can move beyond damage control to...

The day her BYD rideshare driver told her the dashboard screen was a “national secret” … that's when Wall Street Journal correspondent Yoko Kubota knew China had really changed, and maybe it was time to think about leaving. What does the world lose when fewer foreign journalists are reporting from inside China? In this episode, hosts Ray Powell (35-year military veteran) and Jim Carouso (former se...

Washington is engaging plenty with its Indo-Pacific allies these days … just not always on the things they want, and too often on things they don't. So how do savvy allies steer that relationship when the world's most powerful partner feels less predictable than ever? To find out, Ray Powell and Jim Carouso sit down with Marise Payne, Australia's former Defence Minister and Foreign Minister. Maris...

Is Vietnam quietly drifting into China's orbit, and what does that mean for the United States and the future of Southeast Asia? Dr. Nguyễn Khắc Giang explains why Hanoi is hedging harder than ever because, as the Vietnamese saying goes, "when the buffaloes and oxen lock horns, the mosquitoes and flies suffer." In this episode, Ray Powell and Jim Carouso sit down with Dr. Giang, Visiting Fellow at...

Japan sits just 68 miles from Taiwan, while the Philippines is even closer at 61. As one guest puts it, “You can’t invade Taiwan if you don’t control the northern Philippines.” That geography is exactly why three countries - the U.S., Japan, and the Philippines - are quietly building what may become the backbone of deterrence in the Western Pacific. In this episode, co-hosts Ray Powell and Jim Car...

Indonesia’s former trade minister Gita Wirjawan - Stanford visiting scholar and host of the Endgame podcast - joins Ray Powell and Jim Carouso to unpack what the closure of the Strait of Hormuz means for Southeast Asia and why it is more than just an oil shock. With a significant share of the region’s energy flowing through this narrow chokepoint, the disruption is exposing how vulnerable Southeas...

While U.S. attention has been consumed by wars in the Middle East and Europe, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is expanding his nuclear arsenal, testing missiles from land and sea, and locking in a new strategic partnership with Russia. In this episode, hosts Ray Powell and Jim Carouso sit down with Ankit Panda - Stanton Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, co‑host of the Asia...

In this episode, hosts Ray Powell and Jim Carouso sit down with retired U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay Carlson, who led America’s embassy in Manila from July 2022 to January 2026, one of the most consequential periods in the modern history of the U.S.-Philippine alliance. Ambassador Carlson takes us inside the alliance at a moment of dramatic transformation: the 75th anniversary of the...

What if China could take Taiwan without firing a single missile? In this episode, Dr. Eyck Freymann explains how Beijing's primary strategy isn't a cross-strait invasion - it's a gray-zone "quarantine" that could leave Taipei and Washington with no good options. Dr. Freymann, a Hoover Institution Fellow and author of Defending Taiwan: A Strategy to Prevent War with China , joins hosts Ray Powell a...

This week President Donald Trump heads to Beijing for a high-stakes summit with Xi Jinping - the first U.S. presidential visit to China in nearly a decade. But this isn't 2017 all over again. China is stronger, America's alliances are under strain, the war in Iran has scrambled the chessboard, and the stakes run straight through Taiwan, AI chips, rare earths and critical minerals, and the supply c...

What happens when you publish an investigation that an authoritarian superpower doesn't want the world to see? Journalist Regine Cabato found out. A contributor at the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) and former Washington Post correspondent in Manila, Regine published an explainer exposing how pro-China disinformation networks have taken root in Filipino social media feeds. T...

Nepal just experienced one of Asia’s most dramatic recent political upheavals. A former rapper and Kathmandu mayor, Balen Shah, swept to power in a landslide election, winning 182 of 275 parliamentary seats and wiping out every established political party. With half of Nepal’s 30 million people under 25, this “Gen Z Revolution” could signal a trend for young democracies worldwide. In this episode,...

Eighty to ninety percent of global commerce moves by sea - including 75% of the world’s oil and almost all liquefied natural gas (LNG). So when the Strait of Hormuz shuts down, the shockwaves reach every corner of the Indo-Pacific and beyond. In this episode, Ray Powell and Jim Carouso welcome back maritime historian Dr. Sal Mercogliano - Campbell University professor, former merchant mariner, and...

North Korean troops are fighting and dying in Ukraine, and the survivors are returning home to teach their comrades what they've learned. In return, Moscow is transferring military technology to Pyongyang. Beijing, worried about losing its grip, is competing for influence by easing up on decades of pressure that kept the Hermit Kingdom in check. And Washington? It's pulling forces out of the Indo-...

Philippine marines living aboard a rusting World War II ship grounded at Second Thomas Shoal in the South China Sea have been eating fish from waters laced with cyanide, and their spokesman says an October 2025 incident may have gone further, with Chinese “fishermen” potentially attempting to introduce the toxin directly into the ship’s desalination system. In this episode, hosts Ray Powell and Ja...

At the start of 2025, Antelope Reef was little more than a sandbar in the Paracel Islands. Months later, it's on track to become China's largest artificial island in the South China Sea. In this episode, we sit down with Greg Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program and the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) at CSIS and author of On Dangerous Ground: America's Century in the South...

The U.S. military just pulled off one of the most dramatic combat search and rescue missions in history, sending forces deep into Iran to recover the crew of a downed F‑15E Strike Eagle fighter. Aircraft were lost, firefights erupted, and both airmen came home alive. The last time America attempted something this ambitious inside Iran was Operation Eagle Claw in 1980 - and that ended in disaster....

In Ep. 139, Ray Powell, Jim Carouso and guest co-host Nydia Ngiow of BowerGroupAsia sit down with Sir Nicholas Moore, the former Macquarie Group CEO who authored Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040 - the landmark report designed to expand Australian trade and investment across ASEAN. Sir Nicholas explains why Australian companies have historically overlooked Southeast Asia in favo...

Former Acting Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency David Shedd joins hosts Ray Powell and Jim Carouso to discuss his bestselling book “ The Great Heist: China’s Epic Campaign to Steal America’s Secrets .” Shedd reveals how China has executed the largest illicit wealth transfer in history - an estimated $600 billion per year in stolen Intellectual Property - and why it matters to everyone fr...

Despite sweeping US tariffs, a landmark Supreme Court ruling, and ongoing trade policy uncertainty, businesses in Southeast Asia are holding firm. In this episode, hosts Ray Powell and Jim Carouso sit down with retired Ambassador Brian McFeeters , President and CEO of the US-ASEAN Business Council, to explore what shifting US trade policies mean for companies operating across the region. Brian rev...

The war in Iran has sent shockwaves through global energy markets - and no region feels it more acutely than the Indo-Pacific. In this episode, co-hosts Ray Powell and Nydia Ngiow sit down with Paul Everingham, CEO of the Asia Natural Gas & Energy Association (ANGEA), who joins after spending two days at the Indo-Pacific Energy Security Ministerial in Tokyo. ​With the Persian Gulf’s Strait of...

Thailand's February 2026 snap election produced a result almost nobody predicted. The conservative Bhumjaithai Party, led by Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and openly backed by the military and monarchy, won a commanding victory, defeating the reformist People's Party by over 70 seats. The once-dominant Shinawatra-linked Pheu Thai party collapsed to its worst showing ever. What happened? In th...

When the U.S. recently launched strikes on Iran, the world’s attention turned to Diego Garcia, a vital military base in the Indian Ocean. Known as the “footprint of freedom,” this isolated atoll allows the U.S. to port Navy ships, resupply nuclear submarines, and launch strategic bombers. However, its future is in serious jeopardy. During the conflict, the UK initially withheld permission for the...

In December 2025, a four-ship People’s Liberation Army Navy task group - including an amphibious assault ship capable of carrying 1,000 Marines and 30 helicopters - tracked southeast through the Western Pacific, passing through waters near Palau, Micronesia, and the Marshall Islands. Australia scrambled surveillance aircraft. Pacific Island leaders said almost nothing publicly. Most of the world b...