THE LATEST
Written by Aristyo Rizka Darmawan and John Bradford
Ratification of the EEZ agreement provides a good opportunity for Indonesia to clarify its position by denying the validity of China’s Nine-Dash Line claim while simultaneously preserving its interests and advancing good relations with an important neighbour.
Written by Jemima Holborow
Without CBRs, Pacific Islands face reduced financial inclusion and slower development. For the US, it risks pushing the region toward central bank digital currencies and de-dollarisation; a trend that could weaken US financial influence.
Written by Dr Imran Khurshid
In the end, this agreement is less a stabilising alliance than a strategic gamble — one that risks drawing Pakistan into conflicts beyond its capacity, while further complicating the already turbulent geopolitical landscape of South Asia and the Middle East.
Written by Angelo M’BA
Perhaps counter-intuitively, only an approach less concerned with morals and more with pragmatic engagement can pave the way for the EU to spread its values in the Indo-Pacific.
Written by Chhay Lim and Chandarith Neak
Without institutional mechanisms that both parties accept as legitimate and binding, border disputes remain vulnerable to escalation and external intervention whenever domestic political pressures or regional tensions rise.
Written by Vincent K.L. Chang
China and the United States should be willing to make concessions; treating compromises not as a sign of weakness, but as strategic wisdom. The rest of the world should ask what it can do to prevent escalation and avoid self-fulfilling threat perceptions, rather than contribute to them.
This month, we spotlight the mounting pressures reshaping the Indo-Pacific: Beijing’s use of Martyrs’ Day as both a tool of domestic loyalty and an international signal of resolve highlights how nations are navigating turbulence on two fronts. Across the region, domestic instability — from popular protests to fragile governments — is constraining states’ ability to adapt to intensifying great power rivalry.
Subscribe today.
Written by Zsuzsa Anna Ferenczy and Julia Gurol-Haller
Together, the EU, Taiwan, and ASEAN can redefine connectivity not as a geopolitical tool for influence, but as a platform for empowerment, resilience, and strategic autonomy in the Global South.