ASEAN countries put a relatively high level of trust in Japan to “do the right thing” for peace, security and prosperity (see Table 1). This will help it to remain a consistent and reliable partner ...

UMNO is daring Pakatan Harapan to expel it from the Unity Government and call for an early election. The party’s history suggests it would rather not be the one to quit the coalition.

Middle powers in the Indo-Pacific have gone beyond hedging to build strategic space and strengthen resilience. This holds pertinent lessons from Europe. In recent years, hedging has been a key ...

Genuine Bumiputera empowerment remains a policy priority. Whether and how to use ethnic quotas must be deliberated with clarity and decisiveness. The issue of ethnic quotas recently made two peculiar ...

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 ...

Damon Chee explores the growing demand for sustainable fashion and the hurdles preventing it from becoming a viable alternative to fast fashion in Southeast Asia. Extraction of indigo dye, commonly ...

American conservatism and evangelicalism have found their way into the Philippines. The linkages between Filipinos based in the US and those in the Philippines create multiple vectors of influence on ...

Today, Vietnam is arguably better positioned, both financially and geopolitically, to move forward with the North-South High Speed Rail project. However, the feasibility of this ambitious megaproject ...

Public expectations for corruption eradication will never be met unless fundamental reforms are implemented within Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and other law enforcement ...

The State Administration Council is seeking to revive Myanmar’s policy of conscription. Instead of bolstering national solidarity, it will undermine it. Ostensibly, the SAC argues that the revival of ...

The appointment of the new commander-in-chief for the Royal Thai Navy appears to be unorthodox. Admiral Jirapol Wongwit’s appointment as the new commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Navy (RTN), ...

We must get Indonesia’s middle-class narrative right to devise appropriate policy responses. While some argue that the middle class has grown, the evidence tells a more sobering story. The Op-Ed by ...