Chansambath Bong
Cambodia’s 2022 Defence White Paper reiterates longstanding priorities of border security, counterterrorism and domestic stability like its predecessors, but contains an unprecedented focus on cyber defence and ambitious modernisation goals.
Albert Jehoshua Rapha
Before Southeast Asia embraces wholesale the advent of the 'Metaverse', it is a matter of urgency for the authorities to address the current shortfalls in the protection of their citizens' personal data.
Olga Dror
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the Vietnamese government has appeared sympathetic to Moscow, unwilling to denounce its aggression. Facing criticism from some quarters of the public, Vietnam’s propaganda machine has used social media channels to justify the government’s position.
Chanrith Ngin
The Cambodian People’s Party needs China, Cambodia’s top donor and investor, to sustain economic growth and reduce poverty to win the next election, which is vital to its legitimacy.
Nguyen Thu Giang|Phi Minh Hong
Climate change will drastically affect ASEAN’s tourism industry if regional measures on climate adaptation are not taken to ameliorate its potential negative effects on key tourist sites.
A'an Suryana
Khilafatul Muslimin, an Islamist organisation in Indonesia, has tried but failed to influence public opinion. But the government should keep it on a tight leash.
Melinda Martinus
Southeast Asian governments are facing inflationary and climate pressures simultaneously, against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war. To back down from earlier climate promises, tempted by urgent domestic needs, would be counter-productive and short-sighted.
Gatra Priyandita
China is known for using cyber weapons to pursue geostrategic goals. In recent years, entities linked to the Chinese state have carried out alleged economic espionage of commercial firms in Southeast Asia.
Hoang Thi Ha
The duel between the ‘rule of law’ and the ‘right of might’ took centre-stage as the Shangri-La Dialogue resumed under the shadow of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Southeast Asian countries found it a hard sell to promote cooperative security and ASEAN’s broad-based mechanisms against tough talk by representatives of the major powers.
Thomas Borchert
Recent media reporting about a Thai monk caught drunk and indecently exposed follows a long line of attention-grabbing headlines about monastic misbehaviour. Even so, Thai attitudes about such rule-breaking are more nuanced than these reports would suggest.