Today we’re going to discuss a helpful solution to the simple reality in our busy world that it is difficult to build a culture of understanding of any challenge unless those involved in addressing that challenge have a similar foundational knowledge of it.

As in most complicated issues, addressing the rise of the People’s Republic of China suffers perhaps more than most from this lack of a foundation to build off of.

Our guest today is Dr. Alessio Patalano who along with his fellow contributing editors Catherine L. Grant and James A. Russell published this summer through Georgetown University Press, The New Age of Naval Power in the Indo-Pacific: Strategy, Order, and Regional Security, that brings together a variety of authors’ works to outline an framework in which five "factors of influence" explain how and why naval power matters in this pivotal part of the world.

Alessio Patalano is Professor of War & Strategy in East Asia at the Department of War Studies (DWS), and Co-Director of the Centre for Grand Strategy (CGS) at King’s College London (KCL). He specialises in maritime strategy and doctrine, Japanese military history and strategy, East Asian security, and British defence and foreign policy towards the Indo-Pacific. His book on Japan titled Post-war Japan as a Seapower has redefined the study of the country’s post-war history, whilst his work on Chinese maritime coercion remains as a reference in the field.

At CGS, Prof Patalano leads the King’s Japan Programme and the newly established Indo-Pacific Programme. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (FRHistS), a Visiting Professor at the Japan Maritime Command and Staff College (JMCSC), and an Adjunct Fellow at the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies, Temple University Japan.

Prof Patalano maintains an active policy role collaborating regularly with think tanks and government institutions. He is a Senior Fellow at Policy Exchange, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), and is Sir Herbert Richmond Fellow on naval strategy at the Council on Geostrategy. He is also visiting fellow at the Royal Navy Strategic Studies Centre (RNCSS) and non-resident fellow at the Royal Australian Navy Seapower Centre. In 2022, Prof Patalano became the first specialist advisor on the Indo-Pacific to the Foreign Affairs Committee in the UK Parliament. In 2023, he became also the first academic to be awarded a Commendation of the Ambassador of Japan to the UK for his outstanding contribution to the advancement of UK-Japan ties in defence and security. Prof Patalano is an active media commentator and writer (Nikkei, The Spectator); he collaborates on international documentaries, and is also regularly involved in military education, developing and delivering programmes on East Asian affairs.