Southeast Asia has become another front in the ensuing technology wars between China and the US.
Author Archives: chahaewon
Joko Widodo, Prabowo, and Nahdlatul Ulama
Indonesia’s largest Muslim organisation missed out on the most significant ministerial portfolio – religious affairs – despite supporting presidential candidate Prabowo. What now?
New ASEAN Power Grid Agreement Must Reflect New Needs
It’s time to incorporate new key priorities into the pact to better address current realities of energy interconnection and serve future needs.
Trump’s Aid Freeze Could Disrupt Progress in US-Vietnam Reconciliation
Suspending USAID programmes risks undermining years of work building trust between the former enemies and helping victims of the Vietnam War.
Trump’s Territorial Ambitions Send Tremors Beyond the Western Hemisphere
US President Donald Trump’s rhetoric in past weeks has sparked a chain reaction of alarm in Southeast Asia. If his words become deeds, the region’s uneven but evident bedrock of trust in the US, carefully built up since World War Two’s end, could slowly turn to dust.
To Lam’s Pragmatic Pitch to Vietnam’s Youth: Economic Prosperity, Political Control
Compared to their Southeast Asian peers, Vietnamese youth are more economically optimistic but politically disengaged. These attitudes concur with pragmatism of the country’s top leader To Lam, which focuses on material prosperity while calibrating civic freedoms to regime imperatives.
Trump 2.0 and the US-Philippines Alliance: Consistency and Change
The US-Philippines alliance is expected to be reinforced in the Trump 2.0 administration. It will, however, be tested given existing regional flashpoints and the need to follow through commitments pledged in previous years.
How A Ceasefire In Ukraine Could Affect Asian Security
A ceasefire in Ukraine could enable Washington to strengthen its deterrence network in the Indo-Pacific. But this depends on whether Trump hews to traditional balance of power considerations.
Indonesia’s Social Media Usage Law Might Not Protect Children
The Indonesian government’s move to safeguard children from online harm is laudable. However, it overlooks their wellbeing and trains them to be digitally illiterate by assuming the solution lies in a general law.
Philippines Offshore Gambling Operators (POGOs): Off-putting
The high-profile case involving Alice Guo has uncovered a raft of issues related to offshore gambling operators in the Philippines.