The Position of Indo-Pacific Region in Britain’s New Strategy (2015-2021)

Indo-Pacific Region has become a center of competition between the leading powers, and it has drawn the attention of key international and local players. One of these major powers is the UK actively revisiting its position in the world, particularly after Brexit. British government has published the “Global Britain” vision in the Integrated Review in order to reconsider its position as a major power in the world. The Integrated Review makes the UK government to deepen its engagement and consolidate its place in Indo-Pacific Region for a long-term. The Integrated Review document obliges the government to strengthen the UK’s persistent presence in Indo-Pacific Region. Hence, UK has tilted its strategy toward the region in order to consolidate its changing identity as a leading European power and as an international political player.  In this study, the main questions are “what is the position of Indo-Pacific Region in Britain’s new strategy? and what are the Britain's reasons for tilt toward the region?” Referring to the Bernard Cohen's theory "Geopolitics of the World System", it has been argued that the international order has been changed due to China and Russia revisionism, and Indo-Pacific Region is now considered as the arena of competition for great powers. This change has made the UK to shift its strategy toward this global hotspot and play an active and independent role at international environment. The main goal of Integrated Review is to deepen the UK’s engagement in the Region as a European nation for gaining economic and security advantages in the coming decade. The main reasons of Britain’s strategic orientation toward the region could be the economic consequences of Brexit, changing in China stance, prioritizing the US-Britain relations, achieving security-military goals, and boosting bilateral relations with Japan and India, as two regional powers. This study employed a descriptive-analytical approach in research conduction.