geopolitics
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Malaysia’s Foreign Policy, ASEAN, BRICS: A Conversation with Karisma Putera and Seow E Kin Zane Ryan
Jonathan Chin, SSI Editor-in-Chief, and Daniel Chun, SSI Politics Lead, speaks to Karisma and Zane, analysts at Malaysian think tank Bait Al-Amanah. We explore Malaysia’s foreign policy, ASEAN Malaysia 2025, BRICS, Myanmar, the South China Sea and other topics in geopolitics shaping Southeast Asia, ahead of the 46th ASEAN Summit…
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ACFTA at a Crossroads: Balancing Growth and Dependency in ASEAN-China Trade Relations
The strategic partnership between the United States and ASEAN has never fully recovered from the shock of the Trump administration’s 2016 turn away from multilateralism, erratic diplomacy, and rising protectionism. Years of unpredictable US policy have eroded trust, leaving ASEAN leaders doubtful about Washington’s long-term reliability. Into this vacuum steps…
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Echoes of 2018: Understanding Trump’s Renewed Tariff Offensive on China
The hardened stance of President Trump’s second administration toward China—manifested in aggressive tariff threats, export controls, and trade investigations—closely echoes the US trade strategy of 2018–2020. Then, what began with duties on several billion dollars of imports swiftly escalated into an unprecedented tit‑for‑tat tariff war that rattled global markets, exposed…
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20th Century Regional Security: A Look Back at Post-War Vietnamese Nationalism and Southeast Asia
As we return to regional politics and relations focused on ideas of isolationism, regional rivalry and geopolitical control, nationalism is once again becoming a dominant trend of international politics across many regions and political ideas. In an attempt to understand how truly underlying such ideas of nationalism are on regional…
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SEATO: The Tantalizing Promise of Nato’s Forgotten Counterpart in the Indo-Pacific
The past failures of SEATO highlight the challenges of forming regional alliances in Southeast Asia and demonstrate that economic cooperation are more viable than security partnerships like NATO. With a Trump 2.0 administration increasingly focusing on China and Southeast Asia in 2025, a look at the regional alliance structure of…
Sino-Southeast Initiative 