Persistent capital controls and regulatory crackdowns threaten to undermine China’s path to global AI leadership, writes Hadley Spadaccini.

A row over a Bengali New Year procession has exposed how Bangladesh's political spectrum is quietly narrowing at the expense of pluralism and minority rights, writes Ragib Anjum.

Mao Zedong Thought is resurging as a source of guidance for China’s youth navigating growing global economic uncertainty and domestic fierce competition, writes Yu Yue.

Facing energy and industrial constraints, Japan’s vehicle decarbonisation strategy takes a whole value chain approach rather than committing to a single technology, writes Kaoru Natsuda.

ASEAN has long been urged to act as a collective middle power, especially as the strategic environment in which it operates grows more uncertain. The challenges facing ASEAN — including intensifying great power rivalry, regional tensions and domestic challenges — have made these calls more urgent. Y

Vietnam and India’s proactive diplomatic and economic cooperation allows them to advance shared development goals and consolidate structural leverage, writes Do Khuong Manh Linh.

To lead as a middle power and implement a ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’, Japan must start stabilising relations with China as well as hedge against Trump, writes Mike Mochizuki.

Japan recognises the promise of artificial intelligence to boost economic growth, but realising the country’s productivity potential will require overcoming structural barriers, writes Akira Kohsaka.

The economic costs of Trump’s unilateral actions can be absorbed as trade flows and supply chains adapt, but damaged trust may take a generation to rebuild, writes Alexandre Queru.

Superpowers cannot function alone, and middle powers from the Global North and South now have the leverage to shape what comes next, writes Yves Tiberghien.

China is using multilateral institutions to reshape global order in line with its values and interests, but institutional limits and other members’ interests constrain how far it can go, writes Rosemary Foot.

The Xi-Trump summit was an important step in stabilise relations between the US and China, but ultimately showed that future cooperation will remain transactional and highly constrained, writes our editorial board.

While Beijing came to the Trump–Xi summit prepared and focused, Washington did not — and Taiwan is likely to pay the price, writes Susan Shirk.

The US–Israel war on Iran turns up the tension in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, write Amira Jadoon and Colin P Clarke.

The May 2026 Xi–Trump summit revealed that while the United States and China remain deeply divided, both sides increasingly recognise that managing competition is preferable to unchecked confrontation, writes Jia Qingguo.

Thin oil reserves and an overstretched economic growth model leave Vietnam doubly exposed to the Middle East oil shock, writes Cuong Nguyen.

Coming to power in a landslide victory after protests toppled the previous government, Nepal’s Rastriya Swatantra Party will need to convert its populist momentum into a stable and effective governance model, writes Anil Sigdel.

If backed by robust institutional architecture, Canada and India’s AI partnership could help anchor an AI architecture for middle powers, writes Warawita Yaemsuda.

US President Donald Trump’s Beijing visit suggests that strategic restraint may be returning to the world’s most consequential rivalry, writes Sourabh Gupta.

A preventable measles outbreak has undone decades of immunisation progress in Bangladesh, exposing the urgent need to reinforce the foundations of routine vaccination, write Syed Masud Ahmed and Lamisa Rahman.

Australia can no longer assume the great powers will play by the rules, writes Nick Bisley.

As China’s growth strategy shifts from speed to quality, economies around the world are having to adapt, writes Yixiao Zhou.

As great powers pull back from global trade rules, middle powers have the incentive and influence to chart a new path, writes Sam Hardwick.

China and India have stepped back from the brink without resolving the underlying tensions that pushed them there in the first place, writes Chietigj Bajpaee.

With the rules-based order under ever more strain from the great powers, middle powers must cooperate to secure their position and defend the international system, writes our editorial board.

Middle powers are under pressure as great powers turn away from the rules-based order, but cooperation faces serious limits, writes Yoshihide Soeya.

Malaysia’s palm oil governance and tight land constraints have not eliminated palm oil expansion — only displaced it, write Wahyu Wulandari and Eko Bagus Sholihin.

Southeast Asia’s growth in the era of artificial intelligence and digital technology depends on the region’s ability to reinvigorate its most productive firms, write Francesca de Nicola, Aaditya Mattoo and Jonathan Timmis.

Indonesia’s April 2026 US defence pact has sparked fears that overflight access and poor communication could undermine the principles of its foreign policy, writes Alfin Basundoro.

Japan’s recent foreign direct investment (FDI) patterns appear to support policymakers’ ambitions for closer geopolitical ties with India. Japanese FDI outflows to India have exceeded those to China for three consecutive years. But while Japan–India business relations have grown steadily over the pa

Strategic oil reserves function as temporary insurance against disruption, not a long-term solution for Japan’s energy security, writes Yasuo Takao.

Japan’s restaurant sector desperately needs more migrant workers, but the Takaichi government is prioritising nativist politics over economic reality, write Naoto Higuchi, Sachi Takaya and Nanako Inaba.

Japan is left in the cold after the Trump–Xi summit achieved a detente between its friend and its foe, writes Hitoshi Tanaka.

Thailand’s housing market is entering a structural squeeze as rapid population ageing collides with weak income growth, undermining both demand and affordability, writes Ratree Prasomsup.

Southeast Asia's ban on Grok tackled the wrong layer of harm, and the rise of agentic AI means regulators are about to fall even further behind, writes Nuurrianti Jalli.

Seoul should build a maritime coalition with Tokyo and Brussels to protect its energy trade routes amid the fallout from the 2026 Iran war, writes Donggak Heo.

Indonesia is betting its economic future on nickel just as the green transition moves on to battery chemistries that do not need it, writes Althof Endawansa.

Though the Beijing summit between President Xi and President Trump brought no grand agreement, middle powers must still work to manage strategic competition and great-power bargaining, writes our editorial board.

Autonomy in East Asia has long been achieved by strategically deepening interdependence — the question now is whether China will sustain an order that allows others to do the same, writes Amy King.

The EU and CPTPP must proactively collaborate to set the rules and preserve economic openness instead of waiting for the WTO to save itself, writes Arata Kuno.

Beijing is benefitting from Washington’s inconsistent engagement and punitive economic statecraft in Southeast Asia, writes Chhay Lim.

Japan increasingly needs foreign workers, but the government is becoming more restrictive about who can become a citizen. Under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the Nationality Act has not been formally amended — Article 5 still states that applicants for naturalisation must have ‘continuously maintai

The Iran war is forcing Asia Pacific democracies to confront the foundations of their alignment with the United States, write Ha Eun Choi, Scott de Marchi, Max Gallop and Shahryar Minhas.

As Washington uses regulated dollar-backed stablecoins to extend the greenback's reach, Beijing is walling off the RMB and building sovereign alternatives, write Bo Ma and Chenxue Xiao.

The mounting costs of the US–Israel war on Iran are pushing Asian states to consider deeper regional integration, writes Ahmed Aboudouh.

Carving out a ‘green track’ for the critical minerals trade undermines the viability of security-oriented supply chains, writes Alvin Camba.

Central banks need new instruments to manage novel risks across ASEAN economies, write Julia Bingler and Matthew Poggi.

In a landmark move, the Indian government passed the Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill on 18 December 2025. While the reform marks a decisive break from decades of restrictions on nuclear energy, it exposes a deeper paradox in India’s energ

Without an effective implementation strategy Indonesia's Zero ODOL policy will not live up to its hype, writes Lucky Christ Nugroho.

China’s Law on Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress marks Beijing’s furthest step towards a more assimilationist model of national ethnic integration, writes Brian Spivey.