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 ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer As the planet hurtles towards ecological tipping points, the climate crisis has reached not just an environmental crisis, but a civilizational emergency. Record-breaking heatwaves, disappearing coastlines, crashing biodiversity, and the oceans devouring land with an increasingly accelerating ferocity. Somewhere, this is felt—and politically under-served—more than in Southeast Asia. The ASEAN countries, with over 650 million people, ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer The return to the world scene by Donald Trump, albeit more ambitious and with greater political desperation this time, has revived debates over the American foreign policy future—particularly in Asia. His caustic diplomatic style, transactional diplomacy, and disdain for multilateral organizations mean Trump’s foreign policy is not much sophisticated. While Washington might see his assertiveness as ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer ASEAN has been at the very center of Southeast Asia’s political, economic, and diplomatic order for over five decades. It has preserved peace in a region formerly shattered by strife, facilitated trade integration, and become a convenor of dialogue between great powers. But in recent years, its influence has noticeably waned—its voice muffled by geopolitical competitions, ...
By Orçun Göktürk, from Beijing / China The Shangri-La Dialogue 2025, Asia’s largest and most comprehensive security forum held annually in Singapore, has concluded. In addition to the US-China tension, new contradictions and fault lines between Europe and the US also drew attention at the Forum. The Forum takes its name from the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore, where it was ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer As the pecking order in the world’s capital economy, Europe has long been at the top of the list as one of the safest and most developed sources of foreign direct investment (FDI). For most of the developing world, European capital has been a capital with credibility, technology transfer, and access to value-high markets. Southeast Asia ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer As the world hurtles towards a green energy, electric mobility, and high-technology future, rare earth elements (REEs) have emerged as the unsung cornerstone of the global green economy. These metals—vital to wind turbines, EV motors, semiconductors, and military uses—have emerged as a valuable asset on which economic and geopolitical competition is increasingly being fought. For Southeast ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer As the world’s alliances are being recalibrated and old friends have proven themselves unreliable, one bilateral relationship is ready to be reborn and reenergized: China and Thailand. Historically linked by cultural affinity, economic interdependence, and regional interest, the two countries are now exceptionally well positioned to move their relationship in a more strategic, forward-leaning direction. Whereas ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer The resurgence of economic nationalism under the Donald Trump administration has reignited tensions in the trade relations between China and the US, casting a shadow on the stability of the global economy. Strategically located between these two economic behemoths, Southeast Asia is faced with a complex set of challenges and opportunities. The Association of Southeast Asian ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer Southeast Asia is a center of global trade, digital technology, and urban growth. But it is increasingly also at the epicenter of transnational crime. From cyber-enabled fraud and human trafficking to drugs, environmental crime, and illicit finance, transnational criminal networks are exploiting the open borders, legal loopholes, and unequal law enforcement capabilities in the region. While ...