The Quad May Have Finally Found a Mission
The big Indo-Pacific democracies need to offer not just a military counterbalance to China, but an economic alternative.
Southeast Asian nations are struggling to access vaccines.
Source: STR/AFP/Getty Images
The informal “Quad” grouping of Indo-Pacific powers — Australia, India, Japan and the United States — has always seemed more like an aspiration than an alliance. The four democracies all have very different economies and interests. They prefer not to make explicit the one thing they share: worries about China’s rise. Even equally disparate groupings such as the BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are far more institutionalized.
Judging by this month’s meeting of Quad leaders, however, the grouping may have matured. Most importantly, the four nations seem finally to have realized that to be effective, they need to provide the region not just with a military counterweight to China, but a financial and economic alternative.