A collected volume edited by Akira Igata, Project Lecturer at Economic Security Intelligence Lab (ESIL), Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology (RCAST), The University of Tokyo has been published on the website of the U.S.-based think tank Pacific Forum (4/9/2025).
Titled Economic Security and Disinformation in a Fragmenting World, the volume was issued as Issues & Insights (Vol.25, SR3), a regular publication of Pacific Forum. It brings together contributions from seven early-career and mid-career experts selected from around the world, focusing on economic security and counter-disinformation.
You can download the full publication here.
Introduction (Excerpt)
“The world is undergoing a seismic shift. Economic interdependence, once seen as a path to shared values and stability, is now viewed as a strategic liability, prompting countries to diversify supply chains and markets away from excessive dependencies. The spread of information, once celebrated as a driver of mutual understanding, has become a battleground where disinformation and influence operations thrive in self-curated bubbles, dividing societies into competing realities. Major power competition is intensifying, the boundaries between security, economics, and information are blurring, and the division of labor between public and private sectors is being fundamentally redefined.
This volume brings together seven policy-oriented articles from emerging scholars and practitioners working on the front lines of these transformations. It addresses two broad, interrelated topics: the pursuit of economic security and the challenge of responding to disinformation. These are forms of non-traditional security shaped by advances in critical and emerging technologies, and they have increasingly become instruments that states use in pursuit of strategic advantage.
These contributions do not merely diagnose problems, but offer concrete, actionable insights and recommendations tailored to the fast-changing realities of the Indo-Pacific region and beyond. By highlighting the next-generation voices from across the region, each chapter offers a fresh perspective and contributes to a deeper understanding of how economic and informational power is wielded and resisted in today’s increasingly unpredictable international landscape.”
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION – Akira Igata
PART I: EMERGING ISSUES IN ECONOMIC SECURITY
- A NEW AGENDA FOR TRILATERAL COOPERATION: STRENGTHENING US-JAPAN-ROK SHIPBUILDING CAPACITY – Lea Thome
2. FINANCIAL DIVERSIFICATION AMID WEAPONIZATION: CHINA, MBRIDGE, AND THE PROSPECT OF A GLOBAL PUBLIC GOOD – Wenjing Wang
3. INTEGRATING PRIVATE STRATEGIC INTERESTS INTO NATIONAL ECONOMIC SECURITY: US-CHINA CASE STUDIES IN CRITICAL INDUSTRIES – Sae Kobayashi
4. AUSTRALIA’S CLIMATE ENGAGEMENT WITH THE PACIFIC ISLANDS: ALIGNING POLICY WITH REGIONAL NEEDS – Genevieve Donnellon-May
5. SOVEREIGNTY AS STRATEGY: ASSERTING YAPESE AGENCY IN GEOPOLITICAL COMPETITION – Axel J. Defngin
PART II: DISINFORMATION, NARRATIVE CONTROL, AND DEMOCRATIC RESILIENCE
6. TRUTH ON TRIAL: FAKE NEWS REGULATION AND FREE SPEECH IN THE PHILIPPINES – Josiah Patrick P. Bagayas
7. FRAMING CHINESE MEDIA STRATEGIES: GLOBAL TIMES COVERAGE OF SOUTH CHINA SEA DISPUTES, JUNE-DECEMBER 2024 – Nguyen Phuong Thao