Collaboration with the Indo-Pacific solves

Cooperation among middle powers in the Indo-Region is not an endeavor that is exclusive to states alone, as practitioners and institutions have the potential to play a meaningful role in establishing cooperation among like-minded partners at a non-state level. In order to effectively address the challenges the region faces, it is imperative to consider ways to engage non-state actors through new avenues. One promising area for cooperation among both practitioners and institutions on this front is through the establishment of university consortiums within the Indo-Pacific aimed at addressing regional cybersecurity issues. These collaborations can provide a unique platform to facilitate discourse between experts in academia throughout the region and beyond, allowing for a deeper level of cooperation between like-minded countries like those mentioned in this paper, as well as political entities such as Taiwan.

University consortiums, once established, can serve a myriad of purposes that are beneficial to all involved. Ones such as this could allow those involved to identify challenges facing the region in regard to cybersecurity, as well as identifying and sharing methods and best practices to mitigate said challenges. Moreover, such initiatives can help foster a cyber-aware culture among their members through focusing on critical areas such as education and literacy. Cooperation on identification, mitigation, defense, response and educational initiatives can serve an even greater purpose in reaching the public — vaccinating citizens in open societies against disinformation through awareness programs in schools, as well as through public awareness programs in the media. Initiatives such as this could even be grouped as minilateral engagement groups under the umbrella of larger frameworks, such as G7, or looking within the Indo-Pacific, the QUAD, with the goal of leveraging the strengths of practitioners to develop robust and collective responses to cyber issues.

Conclusion

Neo-middle-power diplomacy at its core is about enhancing strategic autonomy through pursuing pragmatic, less normative foreign policy — actively aiming to shape regional order through aligning collective capabilities and capacities. As our world continues to be affected by era-defining events such as the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, securing a level of safety and prosperity remains at the forefront of any foreign policy agenda. As threats to security continue to emerge year after year in cyberspace, middle powers must cooperate amongst themselves in order to adapt to and find their footing in this new reality.

Through actively pursuing cyber confidence-building measures, middle powers are able to further align themselves politically with potential allies, laying the building blocks for trust, transparency, and knowledge as to where each other's capabilities lie — enabling capabilities based cooperation to take place and for bolting on to, or even creating new diplomatic structures. Likewise, cyber capacity-building measures provide middle powers the means to enhance their engagement in the Indo-Pacific and establish deeper ties with regional partners, whether that be through a normative or pragmatic approach. Through fostering cyber capacity-building, middle powers are able to address the region's growing cybersecurity concerns, developmental divide, and infrastructure and communications gap to further build toward the goals of safety, resilience, and prosperity within the Indo-Pacific. By engaging in proactive neo-middle-power diplomacy and treating with the multitude of middle powers in the region, middle powers are able to become more effective, capable, and autonomous stakeholders.