With Renewed Crisis in the Middle East, Who is Watching the Indo-Pacific?

USS Carl Vinson in South Korea, March 2025. Photo credit: Lee Young Ho/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect.

In October 2023, Iranian-backed Houthi rebels began attacking civilian and military shipping in the Red Sea between the Suez Canal and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait. The impact on global trade has cost consumers world-wide billions of dollars, as ships avoid the Red Sea and transit instead around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa. In […]

Southeast Asia’s Growing Importance to Global Trade

ASEAN and Australian leaders at a summit in Melbourne, Australia, March 4, 2024. Photo credit: George Chan / SOPA Images via Reuters Connect.

The world is in the initial stages of an evolution in the structure of global trade. While popular narratives about the era of globalization described a wide dispersion of trade flows and supply chains to all corners of the world, the reality was different. Global trade remained very concentrated. For example, close to 40 percent […]

The Gaza War as Seen from Southeast Asia

Pro-Palestinian Solidarity Rally In Jakarta, Indonesia, November 5, 2023. Photo credit: Mas Agung Wilis via Reuters Connect.

The Hamas onslaught upon Israel on October 7 and the resulting military response by Israel prompted a wide range of responses across Southeast Asia. Some are motivated by political and religious ideology, particularly in Muslim-majority nations, and others by pragmatism, self-interest and established relationships.  Indonesia In Indonesia, numerous leaders expressed support and admiration for the Hamas terror […]