Views from Down Underer
Analysis, news commentary, and opinions on the international relations of the Indo-Pacific and beyond as seen from the region by people from the region. An initiative of the Institute for Indo-Pacific Affairs (www.indopac.nz) in Christchurch, New Zealand, the podcast is hosted by Professor Alex Tan of the University of Canterbury (Christchurch, New Zealand) with panelists Associate Professor Nick Khoo of the University of Otago (Dunedin, New Zealand), Dr Orson Tan and Katie Mills of the Institute for Indo-Pacific Affairs.
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Episodes
Tuesday Sep 30, 2025
Tuesday Sep 30, 2025
Recent news about Australia's pacts with Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu has highlighted the important of geopolitical competition in the South Pacific. However, despite the announcement of these pacts, they were not officially signed in time from the Pacific Island Forum. What are these pacts? Are there outstanding issues that preventing the pacts from being signed? We are joined by Henrietta McNeill-Stowers, Michael Kabuni, and Anna Naupa of the Australian National University to discuss these news.
Monday Sep 22, 2025
Monday Sep 22, 2025
Poland invoked NATO article 4 due to Russian drones violating Polish airspace. Immigration agents in the US raided a South Korean EV plant in the state of Georgia and deported over 300 South Korean workers.
Tuesday Sep 09, 2025
Tuesday Sep 09, 2025
We hosted a conference on "Asia-Pacific states: navigating and managing global disorder" a week ago. We share insights we learned from the conference. US Trump administration is planning to rebrand Pentagon to Department of War. The cost of this renaming alone can be in billions of dollars.
Monday Aug 18, 2025
Monday Aug 18, 2025
What happened or not in the Alaska summit between Trump and Putin? Two Chinese ships collided while doing a pincer move chasing a Philippine coast guard vessel. Will there be escalation in the future?
Monday Aug 11, 2025
Monday Aug 11, 2025
We discuss a paper on the political economy of geoeconomic power and discuss what theory means when applied to real world empirics. In an New York Times guest essay authored by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer titled "Why We Remade the Global Order," Greer argues that the agreement between the EU and the US made at Turnberry resort is a new world order much like Bretton Woods set the postwar world order. Is the comparison valid? We discuss the essay and assess its claims.
Monday Jul 28, 2025
Monday Jul 28, 2025
The Thai-Cambodia border skirmish has now escalated with both sides firing artillery across their borders. Why the escalation now? Japan's LDP loses its upper house majority and what does it mean for PM Ishiba's tenure as LDP party leader. Taiwan has a recall election in a bid to unseat KMT legislators and allow the DPP to regain legislative majority that the ruling party lost in the January 2024 general election. So what is the result and what are the implications of this recall election on party politics in Taiwan?
Tuesday Jul 15, 2025
Tuesday Jul 15, 2025
White House has sent out tariff letters to numerous countries but the the import taxes do not take effect till August 1st. FM Penny Wong gave a speech in the ASEAN meeting about managing differences between allies. Other interesting news such as the confirmation grilling of the US ambassador-designate to Singapore, the advanced RAF fighter jet stuck in India, and how Myanmar military junta received the US tariff letters.
Tuesday Jul 08, 2025
Tuesday Jul 08, 2025
China's FM had a meeting with EU counterpart to discuss outstanding issues on bilateral relations. A Philippine documentary "Food Delivery" on the South China Sea has received attention such that there are active lobbying by Chinese diplomats to not show the documentary. There is still continuing fallout from the leaked call of the Thai PM with former Cambodian PM. Thai PM is suspended pending investigation while calls for her resignation gets louder.
Monday Jun 23, 2025
Monday Jun 23, 2025
US bombed Iran's nuclear facility about a week after Israel attacked Iran. Why did the US attack now? Will their be a fallout from this decision? Is there a risk of a widening regional conflict? Thailand's border conflict with Cambodia has a new twist. A private phone conversation between the Thai PM and Cambodia's ex-strongman leader Hun Sen was leaked and led to calls for resignation of the PM.
Monday Jun 16, 2025
Monday Jun 16, 2025
Israel attacked Iran to decapitate its nuclear program and Iran retaliated with missile and drone attacks. Will this turn into a regional war? NZ PM will visit Beijing, with lots going on domestically and internationally what are some of their likely talking points? Pentagon has decided to review the AUKUS arrangements catching Australia by surprise and also ahead of an upcoming visit by the Australian PM to the US. US Army celebrated its 250th anniversary with a military parade which are rare in the US.
Views from Down Underer
Kwentuhan/Talakayan -- Tagalog words for 'telling a story' and 'discussion' -- describe what our podcast is all about. We are a barkada (group) of political science and international relations geeks based in New Zealand that analyses, comments, and discusses global and regional affairs. As scholars, we bring our academic expertise to help listeners make sense of the news we all watch, read, and listen. Being born and raised in the region, we bring our unique backgrounds to bear to provide perspectives of and from down underer (P.S. It is not a typo. New Zealand is further south of Australia -- the land down under).
About Us
Alex Tan (host) is professor of political science and international relations at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand, honorary professor of the NZDF Command and Staff College, university chair professor of political science at National Chengchi University in Taipei, Taiwan. He holds a PhD in political science from Texas A&M University.
Nick Khoo (panelist) is associate professor of international relations at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand and received his PhD in political science from Columbia University.
Orson Tan (panelist) is senior research fellow at the Institute for Indo-Pacific Affairs. He holds a PhD in political science and international relations from the University of Canterbury.
Katie Mills (panelist) is research associate at the Institute for Indo-Pacific Affairs.