Recognition to Reform: The AFP’s Unfinished Pursuit of Adaptation

...[T]he AFP subsequently reviewed doctrine and tactics, techniques, and procedures. These developments show that operational experience can prompt change, but they also raise the question of how...

Can ASEAN DEFA Make Regional Digital Trade Work for Indonesia’s MSMEs?

By promoting greater regulatory alignment, facilitating interoperable digital payments, and strengthening cross-border digital trade, DEFA could enable [MSMEs] to reach regional customers more...

Is Southeast Asia Losing its Climate Competitiveness?

[T]he direction of climate change is clear... and it is reshaping investment flows.

How does the Philippines Manage Great Power Competition During its ASEAN Chairmanship?

In the global reordering, it is easy to be steered by competing visions pitched by rival powers. Rootedness, clarity, and purpose are key in pursuing opportunities with eyes wide open.

Regulating the Frost: How Indonesia’s New Venture Capital Rules Compound its Tech Winter

Unlike traditional banking or debt financing entities, VC relies on active deal structuring, direct equity disbursements, and hands-on portfolio management. Forcing foreign Venture Capitals into a...

Reclaiming Centrality, Securing Autonomy: How the Strait of Malacca Could be an “ASEAN Matter”?

To ensure the maritime security order extends beyond geostrategic imagery, the crisis of Hormuz serves as a powerful reminder that strategic autonomy in the global waterway could be a conduit for...

Renewables to Reshape ASEAN Energy Security, But Affordability Mandate Remains

Southeast Asia as a Treasure Trove for the Islamic Economy

Different countries in the region have different trajectories. However, Southeast Asia as a whole offers tremendous opportunities to grow the Islamic economy, with each nation offering something...

The Cost of the Cloud: Impacts of Southeast Asia’s Data Center Boom Amidst Energy Justice

The impacts of data centers in Southeast Asia extend beyond the large amounts of water and electricity they consume. However, the pace of technological change has outstripped regulatory development.

The New AI Cartel? When Fear Becomes a Business Strategy

For these companies, the frontier is not only about technological leadership. It is becoming a financial market measured in hundreds of billions or trillions of dollars. That does not make their...

Securing ASEAN's Critical Infrastructure in the Age of AI

The distinction between cybersecurity and AI security is consequently becoming messier. For ASEAN, this will be central to regional resilience as governments and critical sectors accelerate AI...

The mirror-neuron case for restoring summit diplomacy

In Search of a Walt Disney and von Braun: Rallying the Filipino Public for Take-Off to Outer Space

As the Philippines attempts to solidify its presence in outer space, it may face the challenge of losing public support. The alleviation to this possibility can be retrieved from the experiences of...

The Philippines' 2026 ASEAN Chairmanship: Operationalizing the ASEAN Community Vision 2045

ASEAN's record under Vision 2025 poses an uncomfortable question: can eleven member states realise the far more ambitious goals of 2045 when many tasks under the previous Vision saw limited progress?

ASEAN Must Move from Aspiration to Action on Energy, Security, and Trade, Experts Urge at Bangkok...

From SEAblings to Skills Solidarity: Building an ASEAN Identity through TVET in the Age of AI

Moving beyond the concern of developing skilled workers, the main question now is whether ASEAN can develop its people together and, through skills, create a stronger regional identity and a more...

Are We Preparing for Yesterday’s Crises?

Instead of asking only, “What are we preparing for?” one should also ask: “What are we not seeing?”

Myanmar’s Spectacle: ASEAN and the Philippines’ Litmus Test on Human Rights and Democracy

The magnitude of the Myanmar crisis can cost ASEAN the integrity of its process without a prudent mitigation strategy.