The State of Southeast Asia 2026 Survey
ASEAN in 2026: Great Expectations, Limited Effectiveness
Melinda Martinus|Indira Zahra Aridati
ASEAN remains central to regional diplomacy, but it continues to be bogged down by structural limitations.
Articles
Japan’s Grand Strategy Amid Geopolitical Flux
Kei Koga
Fulcrum editor William Choong talks to Kei Koga about Japan’s grand strategy and approach to the Indo-Pacific amid challenges to the global rules-based order. Prof Koga is Associate Professor and Head of Division at the Public Policy and Global Affairs Programme, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University (NTU).
Trump 2.0 Hollowing US Human Connections to Southeast Asia
Hoang Thi Ha|Eugene R.L. Tan
The US’ human and intellectual connections to Southeast Asia are gradually being undermined.
Danantara’s Patriot Bond and the Unchanged Role of Chinese-Indonesian Conglomerates
Leo Suryadinata|Siwage Dharma Negara
The Patriot Bond issued by Danantara shows that Indonesia’s economic nationalism under Prabowo is a repackaging of long-standing state–business ties using new financial instruments. The dominance of Chinese Indonesian conglomerates among Patriot Bond subscribers highlights their enduring role in Indonesia’s political economy.
The Myanmar Crisis and the Challenge of Maintaining ASEAN Consensus
Jael Tan
It is time for ASEAN to truly reckon with the meaning and practice of consensus-seeking, on issues where its eleven members stand far apart.
From Fragmentation to Cohesion: Charting a Course for Philippine Maritime Security Governance
Dianne Faye Despi
How can the Philippines’ decision-makers on maritime security reduce their ‘seablindness’?
The Economic Fallout from the Thailand-Cambodia Border Conflict
Archanun Kohpaiboon
The Thai-Cambodian conflict has exacerbated economic losses on both sides.
Gender Reassignment in Kelantan: Complex Questions Arising from Institutional Inflexibility
Mohd Faizal Musa
The prosecution of an individual in Kelantan for undergoing gender transition underscores system inflexibility which ignores the higher objectives of sharia.
Piloting Pragmatism: Vietnam’s Aircraft Diplomacy through the COMAC Deal
Hoang Thi Ha
Vietnam’s tilt towards the use of Chinese-made COMAC aircraft represents more a calculated experiment than a strategic pivot.
Cyberfraud in Southeast Asia: A New Battleground for the US and China?
Stephen Olson
China and the US have reasons to work together to tackle the scourge of cyberfraud in Southeast Asia. The problem, however, is that their geopolitical rivalry gets in the way.