In November 2017, an international grouping left for dead a decade earlier was brought back to life. Amid mounting concerns over China’s increasingly aggressive behavior, government representatives from Australia, India, Japan, and the United States gathered that month to discuss ways to enhance cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, marking the highly anticipated return of the “Quad.”

At its core, the Quad is a symbolic and substantive addition to an existing network of strategic and defense cooperation among four highly capable Indo-Pacific democracies that are increasingly aligned in their shared concerns on regional security. The group’s revival was a form of geopolitical signaling from the four democracies, a way to tell China: “We’re watching, and we’re alarmed.”

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