Track 1 Diplomacy
The work of professional diplomats and Government Ministers representing the interests of their countries to each other, is known as ‘Track 1’ diplomacy.
Strategic Diplomatic Dialogues
Diplomacy between States and peoples can be seen to proceed on three ‘tracks’:
Track 1.5 Diplomacy
Non-government organisations can create neutral ground to bring senior officials and influential thinkers together to build shared understanding on significant challenges for their Governments and peoples.
Track 2 Diplomacy
Diplomacy need not be left to diplomats and the departments of a State: people-to-people diplomacy involves engagement across borders by non-government organisations and citizens themselves.
Regional Round Tables and Dialogues
The Institute for Regional Security has been delivering diplomatic rounds tables and dialogues for over two decades.
Its current foci are trilateral dialogue involving Japan, the Philippines and Australia and an initiative to establish an Indonesian dialogue in Bandung.
Manila 2025
In February 2025, The Institute delivered a ‘Track 2’ Japan-Philippines-Australia Dialogue in Manila. The dialogue focused on the shared security challenges the three countries shared, and discussed geo-strategic, geo-economic, and geo-political policy that might be jointly developed.
The public summary of that dialogue can be found here.
Sydney 2026
The Institute convened a roundtable on space domain collaboration between Japan, the Philippines and Australia in Sydney in June 2026. The discussion paper for the roundtable can be found here.
Manila 2026
In July 2026, The Institute facilitated a roundtable in Manila that explored current challenges to Philippines sovereignty and the impact of those challenges on the rules-based order. Continuing the trilateral framing of the Manila dialogue, the roundtable also considered possible strengthening of defence arrangements between the Philippines, Japan and Australia to address those challenges. The report and recommendations of that roundtable is currently being presented to officials in the three countries with The Institute planning a Track 1.5 dialogue to review the report and recommendations. The discussion paper and report for the roundtable are currently confidential.
