The Quad is here to stay

Photo via Reuters

ADITHYA KASHYAP: To most Americans, the Quad is a blur. A country that is a part of and the instigator of more alliances and strategic organizations than one can count, the United States often appears to pay little more than a quick glance outside of NATO and the G7. 

However, in light of the heightened media attention, largely driven by the U.S. President’s final appearance at the organization, on Sept. 21 the leaders of India, Japan, and Australia brought rare global focus to the Quad. Especially given the vigor of their participation, the organization made a reverberating statement— the Quad possesses undeniable performance, and must be taken seriously.

Founded as a mere collaboration to combat the 2004 Tsunami that rampaged much of the Indian Ocean, the Quad (The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue) is an institution of note due to the efforts of the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during his early years. He stressed a need to defend the rules-based order against a growing Chinese hegemony in the Indo-Pacific—an implicit mission the organization has maintained ever since.

In 2017, a time which, among other things, was overshadowed by a Trump presidency that was audacious enough to clearly state its hostility to China’s growing threat to the United States’s hegemony, the Quad began to gain importance. With the border skirmishes in 2020 affecting India, a constituent country, the group began to take a more proactive and dynamic role on the world stage, frequently meeting as well as broadening the scope of its agenda. These conversations included naval exercises in the Malabar region and cooperation on vaccines, infrastructure, and technology.

Since then, there has been a concerted effort towards cooperation that is not just substantive, but impactful. September’s meeting marked the commitment to a variety of significant projects, including the Quad Cancer Moonshot project, a groundbreaking initiative to combatting cervical cancer by propelling funding to healthcare equipment to countries in the region, as well as fostering greater maritime collaboration through the Maritime Initiative for Training in the Indo-Pacific (MAITRI), which would enable the partners to monitor threats in the countries’ waters and also commit to investing in technology focused on high-quality intel for defense.

However, perhaps most important was the Quad’s conspicuous effort to present a united front. Especially in a world where the multipolarity of global alliances is seeing growing presence, the Strategic Dialogue’s attempt to bring together 4 divergent democracies, united by their aspiration for a free and harmonious Indo-Pacific, has made a bold statement to the world: the Quad is here to stay.

Adithya Kashyap is a staff writer for On the Record. He is a freshman planning to study Government and Economics in the College of Arts and Sciences. He is from Chennai, India.