Online Meeting with Dr. Inhwan Oh
Senior Research Fellow and Executive Director at the East Asia Institute
May 4, 2026

Dr. Inhwan Oh, Senior Research Fellow and Executive Director at the East Asia Institute, addressed GRF and GRF Community members at the online meeting titled “Conflicting Orders in the Indo-Pacific: Spheres of Influence, Strategic Competition, and the Challenge for Middle Powers” held on May 4, 2026.

The meeting assessed that the current global landscape pointed not to a return to a classical order based on spheres of influence, but rather to a hybrid structure in which different regional order frameworks coexisted and increasingly came into conflict. In this context, the strategic tensions between the United States’ approach in the Western Hemisphere and its efforts to constrain China in the Indo-Pacific were examined. Discussions addressed how competing conceptions of order shaped strategic competition and maritime security risks in the Indo-Pacific, as well as the limits of deterrence, while also analyzing the implications of a fragmented international order for middle powers such as South Korea and their options for preserving strategic autonomy.