Published by the Air University Press, The Air Force Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs (JIPA) is a professional journal of the US Air Force and a forum for worldwide dialogue regarding the Indo-Pacific region, spanning from the west coasts of the Americas to the eastern shores of Africa and covering much of Asia and all of Oceania. The journal fosters intellectual and professional development for members of the Air Force and the world’s other English-speaking militaries and informs decision makers and academicians around the globe.

ISSN: 2576-5361 (print) & 2576-537X (digital)


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Articles submitted to the journal must be unclassified, nonsensitive, and releasable to the public. Features represent fully researched, thoroughly documented, and peer-reviewed scholarly articles 5,000 to 6,000 words in length. Views articles are shorter than Features—3,000 to 5,000 words—typically expressing well-thought-out and developed opinions about regional topics. The Commentary section offers a forum about current subjects of interest. These short posts are 1,500 to 2,500 words in length. Submit all manuscripts to JIPA@hqau.af.edu.  

The views and opinions expressed or implied in JIPA are those of the authors and should not be construed as carrying the official sanction of the United States Air Force, the Department of Defense, Air Education and Training Command, Air University, or other agencies or departments of the US government.

 JOURNAL OF INDO-PACIFIC AFFAIRS (JIPA)
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The journal publishes book reviews to inform our readers and enhance the content of its articles. Reviewers are asked to analyze the book and provide an exclusive, original, unpublished, concise evaluation. The first section of the analysis should normally be the shortest and indicate the type of book (biography, anthology, history, monograph, etc.). Include a very short author biographic citation and then describe the context of the book in the literature of the field. Next, thoroughly analyze the thesis and arguments in the work. What are the strong points of the argument? What are the limitations in the work, including author biases? Is the thesis supported? What are the implications of the argument? Are there any profound aspects of the book? This section will be the longest part of the analysis. Finally, the analysis should finish with recommendations for improvement. Clearly state whether this book is worth reading, who may find this book most interesting, and why.

All books are free to reviewers. Each analysis must be submitted electronically within 45 days of book receipt. Limit your text to approximately 1,000 words, carefully edited.

Submit reviews or questions via e-mail to: JIPA@hqau.af.edu.

Current Books for Review

Ahmed, Faiz. Afghanistan Rising: Islamic Law and Statecraft between the Ottoman and British Empires. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017.

Brooks, Max, John Amble, ML Cavanaugh, and Jaym Gates, eds. Strategy Strikes Back: How Star Wars Explains Modern Military Conflict. Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2018.

Celeski, Joseph D. Special Air Warfare and the Secret War in Laos: Air Commandos, 1964-1975. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 2019.

Chang, Paul Y. Protest Dialectics: State Repression and South Korea’s Democracy Movement, 1970-1979. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015.

Chowdhury, Nusrat Sabina. Paradoxes of the Popular: Crowd Politics in Bangladesh. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2019.

Ci, Jiwei. Democracy in China: The Coming Crisis. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2019.

Doron, Assa, and Robin Jeffrey. Waste of a Nation: Garbage and Growth in India. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018.

Dye, Peter. The Man Who Took the Rap: Sir Robert Brooke-Popham and the Fall of Singapore. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2018.

Elrod, Roy H. We Were Going to Win, or Die There: With the Marines at Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Saipan. Edited by Fred H Allison. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2017.

Fey, Peter. Bloody Sixteen: The USS Oriskany and Air Wing 16 during the Vietnam War. Lincoln, NE: Potomac Books, 2018.

Frampton, Martyn. The Muslim Brotherhood and the West. A History of Enmity and Engagement. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2018.

Glenn, Tom. Last of the Annamese: A Novel. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2017.

Groh, Tyrone L. Proxy War: The Least Bad Option. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 2019.

Jalal, Ayesha. The Struggle for Pakistan: A Muslim Homeland and Global Politics. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 2014.

Lenoir, Timothy, and Luke Caldwell. The Military-Entertainment Complex. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018.

Madsen, Grant. Sovereign Soldiers How the U.S. Military Transformed the Global Economy after World War II. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018.

McHugo, John. A Concise History of Sunnis & Shi’is. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2017.

Merlan, Francesca. Dynamics of Difference in Australia: Indigenous Past and Present in a Settler Country. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018.

Moore, Stephen L. Uncommon Valor: The Recon Company That Earned Five Medals of Honor and Included America’s Most Decorated Green Beret. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2018.

Ransmeier, Johanna S. Sold People Traffickers and Family Life in North China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2017.

Rizvi, Mubbashir A. The Ethics of Staying: Social Movements and Land Rights Politics in Pakistan. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2019.

Shahrani M. Nazif, ed. Modern Afghanistan: The Impact of 40 Years of War. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2018.

Singh, Naunihal. Seizing Power: The Strategic Logic of Military Coups. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014.

Swope, Kenneth M. On the Trail of the Yellow Tiger: War, Trauma, and Social Dislocation in Southwest China during the Ming-Qing Transition. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2018.

Trauschweizer, Ingo. Maxwell Taylor's Cold War: From Berlin to Vietnam. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2019.

Wright, Nicholas D., ed. Artificial Intelligence, China, Russia, and the Global Order. Maxwell AFB, AL: Air University Press, 2019. 

Xu, Yan. The Soldier Image and State-building in Modern China, 1924-1945. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2019.

Yablonka, Marc Phillip. Vietnam Bao Chi: Warriors of Word and Film. Philadelphia: Casemate, 2018.

Younger, Stephen M. Silver State Dreadnought: The Remarkable Story of Battleship Nevada. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2018.

You can reach our editorial staff at JIPA@hqau.af.edu.

HomeJIPAArticle Display

Volume 03 Issue 01 - Spring 2020

  • ARTICLES
  • Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, winter cover
    JIPA cover - Winter 2019
    Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, winter cover
    Photo By: Dr. Ernest Rockwell
    VIRIN: 191121-F-YT915-003
     
    Download full issue.
     
  • Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld, chief, Royal Australian Air Force; Gen Philippe Lavigne, chief of staff, French Air Force; Gen Yoshinari Marumo, chief, Japan Air Self-Defense Force; and Gen David L. Goldfein, chief of staff, US Air Force participate in a multi-domain operations panel during the 2019 Pacific Air Chiefs Symposium (PACS) at Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam, Hawaii, 5 December 2019.
    191205-F-IF502-0113
    Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld, Royal Australian air force chief, Gen. Philippe Lavigne, French air force chief of staff, Gen. Yoshinari Marumo, Koku Jieitai (Japan Air Self Defense Force) chief of staff, and U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein, participate in a multi-domain operations panel during the 2019 Pacific Air Chiefs Symposium on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Dec. 5, 2019. The theme of PACS 19, “A Collaborative Approach to Regional Security,” focuses on building mutual understanding of varied regional perspectives through bilateral engagements and multinational panels and meetings. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Mikaley Kline)
    Photo By: Staff Sgt. Mikaley Kline
    VIRIN: 191205-F-IF502-0113

    Demystifying the Indo-Pacific Theater

    General CQ Brown, Jr., USAF
    Within the Indo-Pacific reside a number of dynamic and complex regional challenges with worldwide implications, including nuclear powers, disputed territories, ballistic missiles, and highly adaptive adversaries. Countering each of these challenges requires a whole-of-government approach in which the other three instruments of power understand that the military maintains a necessary level of readiness to backstop their combined efforts. Revisiting, in detail, the four NDS challenges in the Indo-Pacific validates this construct.

  • The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) and its international partners conduct a military assault against a rebel stronghold on the Rainbow Ski-field near St. Arnaud in the Tasman district during Exercise Southern Katipo.
    20151117_AK_Q1032139_0110.JPG
    The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) and its international partners conduct a military assault against a rebel stronghold on the Rainbow Ski-field near St Arnaud in the Tasman district during SK15. Ex Southern Katipo 2015 (SK15) is a combined, joint, international training field exercise focussed on developing, exercising and evaluating the NZDF’s independent amphibious capabilities and ability to project forces anywhere in the South West Pacific. SK15 provides the opportunity to ensure continual preparedness to operate independently or with our coalition partners. The scenario involves a fictional South West Pacific country that has requested international intervention to restore law and order. The scenario allows for an emphasis on amphibious operations within the context of a larger stability and security operation.
    Photo By: MR Roderick J. Mackenzie
    VIRIN: 200219-F-YT915-0001

    New Zealand's Strategic Challenge

    Major Maia Baker, New Zealand Army
    In addressing the particular strategic challenges that China poses to New Zealand, this article explores what best practices can be drawn from other Western democratic states such as Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Ultimately, the challenge posed by China illustrates why small states need grand strategy and why the lack of a national security strategy is a key deficiency in New Zealand government policy.

  • The Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau and China coast guard vessel 2102 steam alongside each other during the transfer of the fishing vessel Yin Yuan in the North Pacific Ocean June 3, 2014.
    140603-G-ZZ999-002
    The Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau and China coast guard vessel 2102 steam alongside each other during the transfer of the fishing vessel Yin Yuan in the North Pacific Ocean June 3, 2014. The Morgenthau crew was patrolling in support of Operation North Pacific Guard, the Coast Guard's component of a multi-lateral fisheries law enforcement operation designed to detect and deter illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activity. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Coast Guard Cutter Morgenthau)
    Photo By: Dr. Ernest Rockwell
    VIRIN: 140603-G-ZZ999-002

    The China Coast Guard

    Dr. Ulises Granados
    This article inquiries into the causes, logic, and likely regional consequences of Beijing's decision to shift control of the China Coast Guard (CCG) from a joint civilian-military paradigm to a stricly military one. Amid the upgrading of insular features in the Spratlys, the deployment of bombers in the Paracels, and overall modernization of China’s naval capabilities, the article also explores plausible developments in which the People's Armed Police-led CCG, irregular maritime militias, and People’s Liberation Army Navy forces might coordinate more effectively efforts to safeguard self-proclaimed rights in littoral and blue-water areas in dispute.

  • US Army 1LT Nicholas Sereday, executive officer for Charlie Company 2-113th Infantry assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, gives a concept of operations brief to Japanese and US military forces during a bilateral field training exercise in Djibouti, Africa, 2 October 2019.
    Japanese-led field training exercise
    U.S. Army1st Lt. Nicholas Sereday, executive officer for Charlie Company2-113th Infantry assigned to Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa(CJTF-HOA), gives a concept of operations (CONOP) brief to Japanese and U.S.military forces during a bilateral field training exercise (FTX) in Djibouti,Africa, Oct. 2, 2019. The FTX was part of a Japanese-led noncombatantevacuation operation (NEO) exercise, which also included African coalitionpartners. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Gabrielle Spalding)
    Photo By: Senior Airman Gabrielle Spalding
    VIRIN: 191002-F-PS661-1263

    Nontraditional Security Dilemmas on the Belt and Road

    Dr. R. James Ferguson
    This article explores how, if carefully managed, the Belt and Road Initiative represents an invitation for security cooperation. However, it also risks new forms of military competition and increasing securitization of developmental and environmental issues, a well-known problem for nontraditional security as a conceptual and operational category.

  • Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Defence Heng Chee How receives a brief on the capabilities of the command post at Exercise Forging Sabre 2019, hosted at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho.
    Exercise Forging Sabre
    Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Defence Heng Chee How receives a brief on the capabilities of the command post at Exercise Forging Sabre 2019, hosted at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. Conducted 30 September to 10 October 2019, the exercise involved around 600 personnel from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), including the Singapore Army’s Commandos, and assets from the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) such as the F-15SG and F-16C/D multirole fighter aircraft, AH-64D Apache helicopters, Heron 1 unmanned aerial vehicles, and the inaugural participation of the A330 MRTT multirole tanker transport in an overseas exercise. (Photo courtesy of Singapore Ministry of Defence)
    Photo By: Dr. Ernest Rockwell
    VIRIN: 200219-F-YT915-0002

    Assessing Republic of Singapore Air Force's Defensive Air Capabilities

    Anant Mishra
    This article highlights the evolution of airpower due to rampant changes in the international security environment and advances in technology to make a case for further investment in the Republic of Singapore Air Force and its airpower policy to defend Singapore. The article further highlights the progressive expansion of airpower that strengthened Singapore for countless years, while portraying the challenges faced by Singapore—particularly its territorial vulnerabilities and threats to its strategic objectives.

  • BOOK REVIEWS
  • China's Maritime Gray Zone Operations (book cover)
    China's Maritime Gray Zone Operations (book cover)
    China's Maritime Gray Zone Operations (book cover)
    Photo By: Dr. Ernest Rockwell
    VIRIN: 200219-F-YT915-0003

    China's Maritime Gray Zone Operations

    edited by Andrew S. Erickson. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 2019.
    Reviewed by Dr. John W. Tai

    China’s increasingly assertive—many would say aggressive—actions in the South China and East China Seas have captured the attention of the media and policy and academic communities. The most disconcerting aspect of those activities is that they have principally involved Chinese paranaval forces, with which the United States and its allies in the region have had little success confronting. This is an understudied topic and an urgent issue that must be addressed. Andrew S. Erickson and Ryan D. Martinson are faculty members of the China Maritime Studies Institute at the Naval War College and are experts on the Chinese navy and China’s maritime activities. They are thus uniquely qualified and well-positioned to organize a conference of experts to discuss issues related to this topic. China’s Maritime Gray Zone Operations is an outcome of such a conference.
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