Indo-Pacific region does not need another imported security crisis

The Indo-Pacific does not need to be converted into the next theatre of externally managed "peace through strength", especially when the Middle East has just shown how quickly US-designed security architecture can produce insecurity for everyone.

At the Shangri-La Dialogue 2026 in Singapore, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth unveiled the same old script with superficial cosmetics: partners, not protectorates; shared responsibility, not dependency; a stable equilibrium in which no single power dominates the Pacific – all delivered with the confident tone of a nation whose own track record in the Middle East had just proven otherwise.