The Governance Gap: Is Power Growing Faster than Institutions?

In this commentary, BIPSS Research Assistant Nazmul Islam Mahmud examines how the sudden growth in power in the Indo-Pacific breaks apart regional structures, calls into question the maritime norms, and redefines national sovereignty. He argues that this is the outcome of the Governance Gap when rules, laws, and diplomatic systems are left behind in lagging behind the speed and scale of human impact. He concludes that if power continues to spread across the digital, bio-physical, and maritime sectors, then institutional controls needed to contain power must spread more quickly.