Free and Open Indo-Pacific

Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP; Japanese: 自由で開かれたインド太平洋, romanized: jiyū de hirakareta Indotaiheiyō) is an umbrella term that encompasses Indo-Pacific-specific strategies of countries with similar interests in the region. The concept, with its origins in the geopolitics of the Weimar Republic, has been revived since 2006 through Japanese initiatives and American cooperation.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan introduced the FOIP concept and formally put it down as a strategy in 2016. In 2019 the United States Department of State published a document formalizing its concept of a free and open Indo-Pacific. Since then, multiple countries in regions from the European Union to Southeast Asia have referred to the Indo-Pacific in national security or foreign policy documents.

Origin

Historians and political scientists have shown that the "Indo-Pacific" emerged in the context of Weimar Republic geopolitics in the 1920s–1930s, and since then spread to Japan through Karl Haushofer's intervention. Haushofer's designation of the Indo-Pacific as a geopolitical region arose from his global strategy based on the German-Japanese "Pan-region" rule, to oppose the "British and U.S. colonial control of the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific regions". During the inter-war period, Japan also embraced the concept of "Greater East Asia", leading to invasions in the Philippines, China, and Southeast Asia.

Lewis Tambs, National Security Council at the White House and diplomat under the Reagan presidency, updated and wrote its preface to the 2002 publication.

During 2006–07 when Taro Aso was foreign minister, the Japanese government presented the idea of "Arc of Freedom and Prosperity".