East Asia Forum

ASEAN needs to put a stronger focus on digital literacy to enable the full potential of an ASEAN digital economy and society by 2025. The internet and social media are making access to knowledge wider than ever. Digital technologies have transformed the way more than ...

The toughening of China’s policies in the South and East China Seas is widely regarded as a defining characteristic of Xi Jinping’s foreign policy. But while it is true that the PRC has become more assertive in its maritime disputes under Xi, China had already ...

The waters of the South China Sea face environmental peril that is ‘inseparable from the territorial disputes that plague it’. As claimants solidify their positions through artificial island construction, with China driving the most ambitious builds, habitats with wide-ranging ecological and economic value are being ...

For the Mekong countries, including Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam, 2018 was a big year both domestically and regionally. Key developments from last year will inevitably continue to shape the politics of the region in 2019. In terms of domestic affairs, the most worrying ...

Japan has revamped its strategy in the Mekong. Earlier this year, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s diplomatic right-hand man Kentaro Sonoura delineated Japan’s foreign aid policy for the region, stressing the importance of the aid’s ‘quality’ rather than ‘quantity’. Accordingly, Japan has changed its strategy ...

ASEAN has been criticised for its response to the Rohingya refugee crisis. The grouping’s institutional design and existing conventions restrict opportunities for robust action. Myanmar’s military (known as the ‘Tatmadaw’) is the key element to finding a durable solution to the crisis, yet most Western ...

Migration within Southeast Asia is expected to increase as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) continues to promote freer movement of skilled workers across the region. Better labour mobility will help create a highly integrated and cohesive ASEAN economy. But there are barriers to migration within ...

China is often thought of as a country that suppresses internal conflicts, usually to great effect. But there are a number of notable exceptions and, of these, conflicts over water are perhaps the most intriguing.  []But in some cases China has been a constructive neighbour, for ...

ASEAN countries are no strangers to conflict and violence. As a region comprising diverse nation-states, Southeast Asia has experienced a number of inter- and intra-state conflicts. Political stability in the region has improved over the last decade, especially due to a decline in inter-state disputes. ...

There is no shortage of sceptics of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Indeed, stories about the BRI often include the evocation of debt ‘traps’ and ‘vassal states’. While some concerns merit consideration, popular criticisms of the BRI tend to be built upon incomplete and ...