By Mehmet Enes Beşer China–ASEAN mineral trade has developed over the past two decades as one of the most strategically important but least appreciated pillars of regional economic integration. Although efforts have been made in electronics, textiles, and infrastructure development through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), extraction and international trade in mineral resources—nickel, bauxite, rare earth, copper, tin, etc.—are ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer The United States dominated Southeast Asia by sheer power and imposed its will through military alliances, naval presence, and economics for decades. While Washington presents its presence as a stabilizing one for freedom of seas, open marketplaces, and democratic values, too many of its actions look more like strategic hegemony and less like cooperative leadership. But ...