By Dylan Kean President Barack Obama traveled to Myanmar’s capital of Naypyitaw November 12-14 for his first ASEAN and East Asia Summits in two years, as budget battles in Washington had kept the President from making the trip last year.…
By John Schaus As heads of state seek good-news deliverables at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, East Asia Summit, and Group of 20 leaders’ meetings, a longer-term issue is shaping the drivers of peace and conflict in maritime Southeast Asia. Growing…
By Ernie Bower Asia generally, and Southeast Asia particularly, is undergoing a fundamental shift in governance as incumbent regimes struggle to respond to a newly empowered, massive group of voters (in some cases) or constituents who have access to information via…
By Nigel Cory Thankfully there have been no confirmed cases of Ebola in Southeast Asia, with a few people testing negative after reporting symptoms common to the disease. Nine people arriving in Malaysia from West Africa with fevers tested negative…
Who is she? Retno Marsudi was until this week Indonesia’s ambassador to the Netherlands. She has been a career diplomat since 1986 and has served in a number of positions, including as a press attaché in Australia, director for…
By Adelle Neary Much has been made of new Indonesian president Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s inexperience in international affairs. As a local and then provincial leader, domestic issues constituted the entirety of his policy concerns, and in turn the backbone of…
By Dylan Kean & Rasika Gynedi Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has made boosting manufacturing one of his top priorities with the recently announced “Make in India” program aimed at employing millions of Indians in labor-intensive manufacturing. By loosening regulations…
By Adelle Neary Many commentators assumed following Indonesia’s July 9 presidential election that members of defeated candidate Prabowo Subianto’s six-party “Red and White” coalition would not want to be locked out of government and would seek to realign themselves with…
By Dylan Kean President Benigno Aquino III on July 21 signed into law Republic Act 10641, known as “An Act Allowing the Full Entry of Foreign Banks in the Philippines.” This law amended a previous legislation that limited foreign ownership…
By Kriti Sapra Not only is the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a jihadist group which seeks to establish an Islamic caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria, making waves in the Middle East, increasingly it is worrying…