Locating the Quad: informality, institutional flexibility, and future alignment in the Indo-Pacific

Abstract

Australia, India, Japan, and the US are coordinating security activities in the Indo-Pacific under the guise of the ‘Quad’, a highly informal intergovernmental organization that some observers describe as an embryonic military alliance. For others, it is a loose group amounting to little else. Cutting a path through this confusion, this article poses and answers a series of interlinking questions. First, is the Quad purposeful? What do its members expect to achieve through its existence? If it possesses an identifiable purpose—which we claim is a shared need to meet the long-term challenge posed by China—why is the Quad’s format highly informal? Does this informality reflect the growing cascade of informal IGOs in international politics? We argue that although informality is a geopolitical necessity, it also provides a workable format for four diverse members to coordinate security activities whilst maintaining equivocal positions vis-à-vis China.