Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment 2025: Key Developments and Trends

The Asia-Pacific Regional Security Assessment (APRSA) examines key regional security policies and challenges relevant to the proceedings of the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier defence summit convened by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. It is published and launched at the Dialogue and the issues analysed within its covers are central to discussions at the event and beyond.

This twelfth edition of the APRSA covers six chapters and is written by 21 IISS experts from across its offices in London, Berlin, Manama, Washington and Singapore and includes original maps, graphs, charts and tables. The chapters collectively examine how major security policies and trends across the Asia-Pacific are often significantly shaped by seemingly 'non-security' dynamics, from industrial globalisation to domestic and bureaucratic politics.

The special-topic chapter this year will examine defence-industrial partnerships involving regional and extra-regional powers in the Asia-Pacific as, well as their aims and challenges. The other five chapters cover the following topics:

• The second Trump administration's redrawing of the international security landscape
• Japan's concerns over the growing ties between China, North Korea and Russia
• Emerging underwater security trends in the Asia-Pacific
• Military cyber maturity in the Asia-Pacific
• Southeast Asia's uninhabited aerial vehicle-capability developments