The State of Southeast Asia 2026 Survey
Southeast Asia: Not Choosing Sides but Options
Joanne Lin|Melinda Martinus
Dealt a tough deck of geopolitical cards, Southeast Asia wagers on flexibility and plurilateralism.

The State of Southeast Asia 2026 Survey
Joanne Lin|Melinda Martinus
Dealt a tough deck of geopolitical cards, Southeast Asia wagers on flexibility and plurilateralism.
The State of Southeast Asia 2026 Survey
Melinda Martinus|Indira Zahra Aridati
ASEAN remains central to regional diplomacy, but it continues to be bogged down by structural limitations.
The State of Southeast Asia 2026 Survey
Kristina Fong Siew Leng
Businesses today especially value stability and deeper economic integration to mitigate risk, and are more worried about growing US economic influence, as reflected in private sector responses to the State of Southeast Asia 2026 Survey.
The State of Southeast Asia 2026 Survey
Joanne Lin
Across a broad range of indicators, the US’ broader standing in the region has weakened.
The State of Southeast Asia 2026 Survey
Joanne Lin
Southeast Asia has traditionally preferred not to take sides in the long-standing Sino-US rivalry. A fall in confidence in the US makes this a harder choice to make.
Joanne Lin|Jasmine Yeo
Joanne Lin and Jasmine Yeo show how insights from two major regional surveys in 2025 capture the forces shaping ASEAN’s confidence in a year of shifting global winds.
Julia Lau|Sharon Seah
The debut of Timorese respondents in the 2025 State of Southeast Asia survey reveals their sentiments pertaining to a challenging geopolitical landscape and hints at the potential value that the incoming eleventh member can bring to ASEAN.
Joanne Lin|Pou Sothirak
The Code of Conduct (COC) negotiations between ASEAN and China have reached an impasse, hindered by legal ambiguities, strategic divergences, and ASEAN’s internal divisions. ASEAN must move away from a binary approach that equates success with legal binds, and instead explore more pragmatic alternatives.
The State of Southeast Asia Survey 2025
Hoang Thi Ha|Eugene R.L. Tan
China has sought to paint a narrative about a peaceful situation in the South China Sea. But Southeast Asian respondents to the State of Southeast Asia Survey 2025 beg to differ.
The State of Southeast Asia Survey 2025
Kristina Fong Siew Leng
Against a more uncertain global economic backdrop, the European Union and ASEAN face greater urgency to strengthen economic engagement and strategic partnerships.