CSDS’ Bridging Allies initiative is a track 1.5 platform that seeks to generate ideas to strengthen practical cooperation between the key alliances that underpin security in Europe and the Indo-Pacific, paying particular attention to NATO on the one hand, and the US-Japan, US-Australia and US-ROK alliances on the other. CSDS conducts this initiative in close collaboration with academic and think tank partners in the United States, Japan, Australia, France, the Republic of Korea and Canada.

The CSDS Bridging Allies initiative has so far produced a number of deliverables based on direct support from partners such as NATO and the Australian Department of Defence.

• A project entitled The Indo-Pacific Futures Platform that was supported by NATO’s Science for Peace and Security (SPS), which examined key security trends in the Indo-Pacific region, and analysed their possible impact for NATO. This project was led by CSDS in cooperation with the National Institute for Defense Studies (NIDS) in Tokyo, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), and CERI at Sciences-Po Paris.
• A project supported by the Australian Department of Defense’s Strategic Policy Grants Program (SPGP) that brought together practitioners and experts from Europe and the Indo-Pacific to offer recommendations on how to strengthen links between NATO and US allies in the Indo-Pacific. This project was led by CSDS in cooperation with the US Studies Centre of the University of Sydney (USSC) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC, who joined as an associate partner. The project resulted in the publication of a CSDS In-Depth Paper.