Southeast Asian countries’ historically high defence budgets are the sum of various national considerations: financial self-sufficiency, territorial control, expansion of capabilities, peacetime missions and the development of the local defence industry. The threat of China plays a limited role. Several Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, the Philippines, and Vietnam depended heavily on extra-regional powers […]
• Editorial
The United States and China have apparently reached a tacit agreement to disagree and maintain a leaky status quo in the South China Sea. Not coincidentally, relations on this issue between Asean claimants and between Asean and China are more or less at the same place. In this new ‘normal’ the United States will continue its […]
Observing the Parliament of Malaysia or indeed any of Malaysia’s 13 state legislative assemblies and it is noticeable that the corridors of power are packed with the elderly. There are no elected politicians between the ages of 15 to 24 in the country, and more than 70 per cent of parliamentarians are above the age of 50. This is […]
• Editorial
In spite of the United States’ renewed focus on great power competition in the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS), the war against terrorism will remain salient to US strategy. In few places is this clearer than in the Philippines. The United States’ ongoing efforts to bolster its military aid under the remit of counter-terrorism cooperation reflects Washington’s desire […]
• Editorial
The eighth Singapore-Malaysia Leaders’ Retreat held in Singapore on January 14 and 15 2018 witnessed a milestone in bilateral ties. Leaders of both countries signed an agreement to build a rapid transit system linking Johor Bahru and Singapore, and officially launched the Marina One and Duo joint developments. But new challenges threaten to test relations […]
• Editorial
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security (MoPS) thinks that it is killing two birds with one stone by passing new laws regulating data storage. But it could soon find out it has no use for two dead birds while the stone flies off and damages the economy. In June 2017, the MoPS proposed a draft cybersecurity […]
The leadership of the Indonesian military is in flux. In the last three months of 2017, then commander General Gatot Nurmantyo executed two reshuffles of senior officers: one on October 27 and the other on December 4. Four days later on December 8, General Nurmantyo handed over command of the military to Air Chief Marshal […]
* Editorial
When Australia reduced its foreign aid to Indonesia by 40 per cent in 2015, Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry responded that ‘Indonesia… is no longer a country that needs aid for development’. At face value, this seems to be the case. Data released by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee (DAC) in October 2017 shows that net foreign […]
• Editorial
Things got off to a bad start for the Vietnam economy in 2017 with the shock withdrawal of the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Subsequent uncertainties about Canada’s participation in a potential TPP-11 agreement that excludes the United States were a further disappointment. Other more positive economic indicators have offset this initial set-back. […]
• Editorial
The first year of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration was marked by sustained GDP growth of 6.7 per cent — the second highest in the region. This growth was supported by higher government spending in economic and social fields, as well as by an increase in infrastructure spending to 5.6 per cent of GDP, as […]
• Editorial
Following its graduation from least developed country (LCD) to lower-middle income status in July 2016 the Cambodia economy has remained healthy. In 2017 Cambodia GDP growth came in at 6.9 per cent, driven by the tourism sector, an ongoing construction boom, and the gradual emergence of non-textile exports. In the first ten months of 2017 […]
• Editorial
After the 2016 US Presidential election hope remained in Hanoi that Donald Trump, once in office, would turn from firebrand protectionist campaigner into a leader who accepted the value of open trade — a cause in which the Vietnamese government had invested so much in preparation for Vietnam’s membership of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). These […]