• Contributed content • Editorial
In mid-February, Indonesia’s Health Minister, Terawan Agus Putranto pointed to divine intervention when explaining that no cases of COVID-19 had been identified in Indonesia. Despite his advice for continued prayer the first case was confirmed […]
• Contributed content
The relationship between the United States and Asean in 2015 rested on two things. The first was a coherent set of strategic, economic and political policies. The second was a concerted and public effort from […]
• Editorial
In the late 1990s the Indonesian economy was in the midst of one of the deepest economic crises in recent global history. The 32-year authoritarian rule of former president Suharto had ended ingloriously, with no […]
• Editorial
Global media and numerous ‘experts’ routinely assert that Sri Lanka was forced to cede a strategically important port to China after being lured into a debt trap by easy Chinese loans. This story has now […]
• Editorial
Controversy has surrounded revision of Indonesia’s foreign worker regulations ever since a presidential regulation (PP20) on the subject was issued on March 26. This is hardly surprising considering 2019 is an election year. Parties and […]
• 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 […]
• Editorial
In 2017 economists Carl Frey and Michael Osborne concluded that 47 per cent of jobs in the United States were at high risk of workplace automation. A range of replications and extensions have made similar claims. […]
Editorial
With Southeast Asian nations facing a deteriorating external security environment and increasing Chinese maritime assertiveness, many commentators have predicted a widespread naval expansion in the region. To date these predictions have failed to materialise. Rather, […]
Indonesia’s youth (pemuda) have always been valued as the vanguard of political change, taking a leading role in the independence revolution of the 1940s and in more recent regime changes in 1966 and 1998. With […]
The year 2016 ended with Malaysia Prime Minister Najib Razak still firmly entrenched, despite two years of scandal, scrutiny and speculation over funds missing from state development fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), including US$800 million […]
With a gross domestic product (GDP) averaging 7 per cent since 2000, the Laos economy is among the fastest growing in Asean. Despite this, in recent years the Laos economy has trended downwards. Amid global […]
The Asean Economic Community (AEC) presents new opportunities for Laos PDR, but it also underlines significant challenges. Laos has long been a country of promise given its resources and geographic proximity to China and other […]