www.asia-studies.com

   home search about subscribe contact  

 

 

 

 

  

Home

  

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Asia-Studies Full-Text Online

The Most Comprehensive and Authoritative Source of
Asia-Pacific Information
 
 

Asia-Studies Full-Text Online is the premier database for the study of modern Asia Pacific. As the exclusive licensee for many of the region's most prestigious research institutions, Asia-Studies.com brings together thousands of full-text reports covering 55 countries* on a multitude of business, government, economic, and social issues. more . . .

  
 

Accessibility Policies

  
 

 

  
     
 

 

  
 

 

  
 

Library Journal eReview rates Asia-Studies Full-Text 10/10 on content and 9/10 overall.

  
 

* Library Journal is a trademark of Media Source

    
 

 

  
 

 

  
 

 

  
 

We index full-text journals with open access platforms in our Asia-Studies Full-Text Plus section. Here is the list of journals available.

  
 

 

  
 

 

  
 

 

  
 

September 2026 Current Topics

  

Source

 

 

  

 
Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific 2026 (Full Report) shows how evidence on both shared household circumstances and the experiences of individuals within a household can provide a fuller understanding of socioeconomic deprivation:

Key Indicators for Asia and the Pacific covers 50 ADB regional member economies: Afghanistan, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, Georgia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Kyrgyz Republic, Lao, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Naoero, Nepal, Niue, New Zealand, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Taipei, Tajikistan, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, and Viet Nam.

  

ADB

Navigating Nationalism and Regional Security in the Cambodia-Thailand Maritime Dispute, August 2026. Following open military clashes in 2025 and escalating border tensions, the maritime dispute between Cambodia and Thailand in the Gulf of Thailand has entered a critical phase, endangering regional security and offshore energy development. Following a hardline nationalist campaign, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s government unilaterally withdrew Thailand from the 2001 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU 44) on May 5, 2026, to dissolve the diplomatic legal framework governing the 27,000 km2 Overlapping Claims Area...

  

EWC

Fault Lines Beneath the Blue Pacific: Deep-Sea Mining and the Future of Pacific Unity, August 2026. The emergence of a commercial deep-sea mining (DSM) industry is being driven by US–China competition over the critical minerals required for batteries, weapons systems, and clean energy infrastructure. Its focus is the Pacific Ocean, where polymetallic nodules — potato-sized rocks containing cobalt, copper, manganese, and nickel — lie in vast quantities on the seafloor. Some Pacific Island nations have already begun engaging with Washington, Beijing, and various mining companies in anticipation of significant financial returns...

  

Lowy

Australia and China: Embracing While Sparring, August 2026. Australia’s China ties are consequential: there is a lot to gain if things go well; a lot to lose if they do not. Such fluctuations have often required careful management, but have rarely proved unworkable. From 2017, after an accumulation of disagreements, however, a serious breakdown occurred that exposed the risks inherent in deeper links with Beijing. Australia’s change of government in 2022 provided an opportunity to escape the negative spiral, which both sides were willing to do. Most bilateral activities resumed, but it was a modest new normal, not a reset...

  

Lowy

The Rise of Authoritarian Cooperation: A New Illiberal Order? August 2026. The world's leading autocracies, notably China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea, are increasingly pulling in the same direction. Their partnership now spans multiple themes and theatres, reaching across battlefields, multilateral forums, the contest over information, and the global economy. This collaboration has already paid dividends, sustaining war efforts, propping up embattled regimes, and chipping away at democratic norms. Yet its reach is constrained: the grouping is transactional, leaderless, and riven by competing interests, with no shared blueprint for an alternative order...

  

Lowy

Russia’s Pacific Submarine Fleet: Sino-Russian Cooperation in a Conventional Pacific Conflict, August 2026. In Australia, the submarine debate is dominated by the acquisition of nuclear-powered attack submarines under the AUKUS deal. Significantly less attention is given to threats from submarines, specifically the eight nuclear-powered attack submarines Russia operates in our region and its strategic incentives to use them. This ASPI explainer examines the Russian Pacific Fleet’s potent submarine force and explores how it could support China in a Pacific conflict. Moscow’s growing strategic reliance on China, combined with its substantial Pacific-based submarine force, could shape a regional conflict involving China...

  

ASPI

Digital Infrastructure in South Asia: China’s Role and the Potential for Australia–India Cooperation, August 2026. Digital infrastructure development in South Asia is gathering pace. It is central not only to economic growth and public service delivery, but also to national and regional security as well as geopolitical competition, particularly between China and India. China has emerged as a significant supplier of digital infrastructure and technology across the region. Through the Digital Silk Road, Chinese entities have become deeply embedded across South Asia’s digital ecosystem, spanning telecommunications, fibre-optic networks, submarine cables, data centres, cloud services...

  

ASPI

Myanmar and the Growing Influence of China, August 2026. This issue brief examines China’s influence operations in Myanmar, focusing on the tools and strategies Beijing employs to advance its political, security, and economic interests. It argues that China’s approach is multifaceted, encompassing engagement with ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), weapons transfers, mediation and ceasefire facilitation, diplomatic support for the Myanmar military, and extensive economic engagement. China has sought to balance its relationships with the military and EAOs while using its influence to protect its strategic interests...

  

ISDP

CPEC and China’s Strategic Web: Power, Connectivity, and Control in Pakistan and Beyond, August 2026. This Stockholm Paper, CPEC and China’s Strategic Web: Power, Connectivity, and Control in Pakistan and Beyond, marks the first publication under the Stockholm Center for South Asian and Indo-Pacific Affairs (SCSA-IPA) flagship research project, The Silk Noose: China’s Power Architecture in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region. The study examines how the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), the flagship project of China’s BRI, has evolved beyond a connectivity and infrastructure initiative into a multidimensional instrument of strategic influence...

  

ISDP

The Chechen Choice: The Price of Personalized Rule in Modern Russia, August 2026. Chechnya, known just as much for its open defiance of Moscow as for its towering mountain ranges, is once again caught at a political crossroads. With frequent reports of its leader, Ramzan Kadyrov’s deteriorating health, speculation remains rife as to what path the autonomous republic of the Russian Federation will take. Not wanting a repeat of the violence of the 1990s, Moscow undoubtedly views a smooth transfer of power as being of the utmost importance. However, as the region operates not through institutional frameworks...

  

ISDP

China’s Maritime and Military Strategy in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, August 2026. China’s strategy in the Bay of Bengal and the wider Indian Ocean is best understood as an integrated geostrategic, economic, and military project that combines port infrastructure, connectivity corridors, and incremental naval presence. While framed under the Maritime Silk Road, this approach steadily expands China’s capacity to secure sea lanes, project power, and shape the regional order. The Bay of Bengal corridor—linking Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka—serves as a critical subsystem connecting the South China Sea to the Arabian Sea and beyond...

  

ISDP

Beyond Cable Protection: Taiwan’s Undersea Infrastructure Resilience in the Age of AI, August 2026. Taiwan has adopted a comprehensive approach to strengthening the resilience of its undersea infrastructure through legal reforms, enhanced surveillance and backup communication capabilities, and calls for international cooperation. In the meantime, Taipei seeks to increase its strategic importance within global digital networks by positioning itself as a hub for semiconductor production, AI development, and international communications connectivity. Despite these efforts, significant structural challenges remain...

  

ISDP

Trends in Southeast Asia 2026 #21: Meme Generation Fights Militarization: Youth Protest in Prabowo’s Indonesia. Between August 2024 and September 2025, Indonesia witnessed a series of hashtag-driven mass student and youth protests. They initially focused on the dynastic politics of former President Jokowi but quickly targeted President Prabowo’s systematic militarization of governance. The revised TNI (Indonesian Armed Forces) Law—which allows active-duty military officers to hold civilian government positions—crystallized grievances about Prabowo’s military-run flagship programmes and defence spending...

  

ISEAS

Trends in Southeast Asia 2026 #20: A Missed Opportunity? Critical Minerals and the US-Vietnam Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. During former US President Joseph Biden’s September 2023 visit to Hanoi, the United States and Vietnam announced a “double upgrade” to the bilateral partnership, elevating ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP). Central to the CSP are agreements on semiconductor supply chains and critical minerals, including US investment pledges to expand Vietnam’s semiconductor manufacturing capacity...

  

ISEAS

Trends in Southeast Asia 2026 #19: Friday Khutbahs as Models for Muslim Civic Behaviour in Multi-Ethnic Malaysia. This study analyses 420 Friday khutbahs (sermons) between 2021 and 2025 across ten Malaysian states and federal territories to examine how Islamic sermons prescribe norms of citizenship. Malaysia’s centralized Islamic bureaucracy, especially that of the state muftis, ensures sermons are regulated from the top. As a result, the mosque pulpit operates primarily as a structured channel of moral transmission to shape civic behaviour through religious authority. Across states, the “good Muslim citizen” is prescribed as being disciplined...

  

ISEAS

Latest APEC publications:

  

APEC
Latest ADB Working Paper Series:  

ADB
Latest ADB Publications:  

ADB

 

 

  

 

 

 

  

 

August 2026

  

 

 

 

  

 

Monetary Authority of Singapore: Macroeconomic Review, Volume XXV, Issue 3, July 2026 (Full Report). The Singapore economy outperformed in Q2 despite the headwinds from the oil price shock. Near-term growth momentum should stay firm, supported by sustained AI-related demand and its spillovers to adjacent industries and business confidence. Inflation picked up mainly reflecting some passthrough of higher global energy prices to transportation-related services as well as to goods inflation. MAS Core Inflation is projected to increase in Q3 and stay elevated before stepping down in H2 2027. In July, MAS increased the rate of appreciation of the S$NEER policy band very slightly, with no change to its width and the level at which it is centred.

  

MAS

MAS Survey of Professional Forecasters, June 2026. The Singapore economy expanded by 6.0% year-on-year in Q1 2026, slightly exceeding the respondents’ median forecast of 5.8% in the previous survey. In the current survey, the respondents expect the economy to grow by 4.3% year-on-year in Q2 2026. The respondents expect GDP to expand by 3.5% this year, down slightly from 3.6% in the previous survey. According to the respondents, the most likely outcome is for the Singapore economy to grow by 3.0% to 3.4%, with an average probability of 27%. In comparison, the previous survey identified 3.5%–3.9% as the most probable growth range...

  

MAS

How Great Power Rivalry Returned to the Indian Ocean and the Stakes for Australia, July 2026. For decades, Australia’s strategic policy has focused on the Pacific and Southeast Asia — a natural orientation given its geography and the historic absence of threats from the Indian Ocean. However, great power competition has now returned to the Ocean’s littoral states. The Iran war has closed the Strait of Hormuz, and the resulting disruption to global trade routes is affecting Australian economic security and the credibility of its main ally in real time. Unlike the latent threat of conflict in the Western Pacific, the consequences of the Iran war are immediate and measurable...

  

Lowy

Between the Superpowers: Southeast Asia’s Strategic Supply Chain Dilemma, July 2026. Southeast Asia’s strategic supply chains — those tied to renewable energy and advanced technologies — have been among the region’s most dynamic sectors. Southeast Asia’s role as a “connector” economy between the US and Chinese blocs has served the region’s trade- and investment-led growth model well. However, that same role is now a vulnerability. US–China competition is creating conditions far less favourable, or outright hostile, than only a few years ago, and the indirect linkages running through the region leave it exposed to decisions made in Beijing and Washington...

  

Lowy

Understanding Democratic Erosion Report, July 2026. Democratic erosion is the incremental and multifaceted deterioration in the freedoms, guarantees, and processes vital to the functioning of democracy. Various studies have tried to pinpoint one cause or set of causes of democratic erosion. But we argue that democratic erosion is a systems problem that is best understood by applying systems thinking to identify and explore the complex processes and pathways behind the phenomenon...

  

Lowy

From the Old World to the New: Why German Rearmament Matters for Australia, July 2026. When then chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz delivered the famous Zeitenwende (epochal shift) speech outlining the urgent need for change in defence and security policy as a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he presided over a military that reportedly struggled to participate in even basic NATO operations. Today by contrast, Germany is the world’s fourth largest military spender and has committed to military and industrial uplift with zeal...

  

ASPI

Past Its Use-By-Date: Turning End-Of-Life Technology Risk Into National Advantage, July 2026. End-of-life technology is no longer simply an IT management problem. Across governments and critical infrastructure, unsupported systems are becoming a structural risk to national security, economic resilience and the continuity of essential services. Systems designed for the threat environments of the 1990s and 2000s continue to support energy networks, telecommunications, healthcare, public administration and other essential functions...

  

ASPI

Polar Security: Strategic Competition at the Ends of the Earth, July 2026. The Arctic and Antarctica were strategic theatres in which the Cold War played out, but they were also regions in which concerted efforts were made to bring together the rival superpowers. The polar regions became beacons of global cooperation, Cold War East-West dialogue and best practice statecraft. Today, the polar regions host new ‘players’ or stakeholders and are shaped by increasingly novel forces. The dynamics at the ends of the earth have clearly changed, and the fragile status-quo born from our Cold War system of managing state power (and ambitions) is incredibly brittle...

  

ASPI

Northern Australia’s Strategic Operating System: Industry, Infrastructure and National Resilience, July 2026. Northern Australia has become a nationally significant strategic operating environment. Its industrial continuity, infrastructure resilience and sovereign capability directly shape Australia’s ability to withstand coercion, disruption and strategic competition. The region sits at the centre of Australia’s economic strength and strategic posture. It underpins nationally significant industries, sustains regional communities and supports the infrastructure, workforce and supply chains that enable Australia’s economic security and strategic endurance...

  

ASPI

Primed for Pressure: A Preparedness, Resilience and Redundancy Scorecard, July 2026. Northern Australia has become Australia’s principal strategic operating base. As the nation’s forward line of deterrence and power projection, its ability to support sustained military operations will be critical in any future crisis or conflict. If deterrence fails, Australia’s capacity to generate, sustain and recover combat power will depend not simply on individual bases or capabilities, but on the resilience of the interconnected systems that underpin northern defence. Over the past decade, Australia has made significant investments in northern defence infrastructure, force posture and alliance integration...

  

ASPI

New Governments, New Opportunities: US Relations with Bangladesh and Nepal Three Months In, June 2026. In the past two years, Bangladesh and Nepal have experienced significant upheaval in their respective political orders. Both witnessed violence in response to public protests and ousted their leaders. Both transitioned from interim governments and conducted elections with new prime ministers entering office. During roughly the first 100 days of the two governments, both have had the United States reach out through official visits, agreements, and opportunities for future cooperation...

  

EWC

Nepal’s Elections and the Opportunities for Youth-led Transformation, May 2026. Nepal is undergoing a rapid political transformation after last year’s Gen Z protests and is now anchored through the March 5 elections. The way youths were elected through the elections and dominate the parliament is a real generational shift in Nepali politics. Also, conventional and regional political parties were nearly routed and a relatively new political party–Rastriya Swatantra Party–secured a thumping majority winning 182 seats in a 275-member House of Representatives...

  

EWC

Bangladesh’s Post-Uprising Election and the Struggle for Strategic Space, May 2026. The February 2026 parliamentary election in Bangladesh is the first truly important political event after the collapse of the Sheikh Hasina-led system amid massive public protests and subsequent transition period. The election allowed political competition and some democratic legitimacy to return to Bangladesh, while simultaneously revealing several structural trends which will determine the country’s future development: the rising demands of young demographics, the ongoing tug-of-war between political reform and revenge politics, and challenges related to Bangladesh's strategic neutrality in a geopolitically polarized environment...

  

EWC

Navigating China’s Maritime Silk Road and Economic Coercion, July 2026. China’s 21st Century Maritime Silk Road (MSR), the maritime component of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is reshaping global geopolitical and geoeconomic dynamics. While Beijing presents the MSR as a connectivity and infrastructure initiative, this brief argues that it also serves as a strategic instrument for expanding China’s influence, leveraging economic dependence and challenging the United States’ maritime primacy. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Rush Doshi, Xu Chenggang, and Wang Huning, it examines the strategic, institutional, and ideological foundations of China’s maritime statecraft...

  

ISDP

Redesigning Extended Deterrence in the Third Nuclear Age: Alliance Modernization in the ROK-U.S. Alliance, July 2026. The international nuclear order is entering the “Third Nuclear Age,” defined by simultaneous near-peer nuclear competition with Russia and China alongside North Korea’s advancing capabilities. This brief argues that pressure to redesign extended deterrence now originates as much from Washington’s strategic requirements as from allied demand. The United States faces credibility challenges regarding not only its willingness to employ nuclear weapons but also the sufficiency of its nuclear capabilities. Using the Republic of Korea as a primary case, this brief examines how the alliance must evolve from a provider-protectee model toward genuine co-management of the nuclear order...

  

ISDP

Forging the Arsenal Corridor: China–Pakistan Defense Integration and the New Strategic Supply Chain, July 2026. China’s military partnership with Pakistan has undergone a significant transformation over the past decade, evolving from a traditional supplier-recipient relationship into a deeply integrated strategic arrangement. This issue brief examines how Chinese defense transfers, technology sharing, and industrial cooperation have reshaped Pakistan’s military capabilities across the air, land, maritime, and emerging technology domains. It argues that Beijing’s support serves not only to balance India’s conventional military advantage but also to advance broader Chinese strategic objectives associated with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)...

  

ISDP

The Slow Death of the Russian Internet: How Russia Is Reshaping Its Digital Infrastructure, July 2026. The ongoing internet restrictions in Russia have been unprecedented in scope. Never before has a country with a previously free and open internet environment attempted to build domestic barriers to block external influence by using such aggressive tactics. Through the passing of legislation, the installation of monitoring devices, and the buildup of a domestic digital services ecosystem, Russia appears to be attempting to sever itself from the global internet system, of which it has been a part since its inception. The ramifications of this effort have been reverberating across the Russian public and economy, with daily disruptions to everyday life occurring in major cities across the country...

  

ISDP

China and the Hormuz Crisis: Fresh Momentum for the Green Transition? July 2026. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz—through which roughly 20 percent of global oil consumption transits—triggered what the International Energy Agency (IEA) described as the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. Beyond the immediate market shock, the crisis has underscored the strategic risks associated with continued dependence on fossil fuels and a small number of critical maritime chokepoints. This issue brief analyzes how the Hormuz Crisis is reinforcing China’s centrality within the emerging clean energy order and the broader geostrategic implications of this shift...

  

ISDP

Latest APEC publications:

  

APEC
Latest ADBI Working Paper Series:  

ADB
Latest ADB Working Paper Series:  

ADB
Latest ADB Publications:  

ADB

 

 

  

 

 

 

  

 

July 2026

  

 

 

 

  

 

High Frequency Macroeconomic Forecasts Current Quarter Model: 2026Q3, July 2026. Buoyed by robust goods exports, strong demand for AI-related equipment, and continued improvement in local consumer sentiment, Hong Kong’s GDP grew by 5.9% in 26Q1. However, with inventory accumulation slowing, Hong Kong’s economic growth is estimated to moderate to 4.2% in 26Q2 , though underlying fundamentals remain solid. The labour market remains stable, with the unemployment rate expected to edge down from 3.7% in 26Q2 to 3.6% in 26Q3. The conflict in the Middle East has kept energy costs elevated, and rising costs will progressively be passed on to consumers, which is expected to lift CPI inflation to 2.5% in 26Q3. Growth in the second half of 2026 will be driven mainly by domestic demand...

  

HKU

2026 Lowy Institute Poll: Australians Register Historic Levels of Distrust and Unease in 2026. Australians are wary of the two superpowers, placing low levels of trust in both the United States and China. Australians’ trust in the United States to act responsibly in the world has fallen to 31%, the lowest level ever recorded in the Lowy Institute Poll. By contrast, trust in China has risen eight points from last year to 28%, narrowing the gap with the United States to just three points. That gap was 53 points in 2022. Australians remain trusting of liberal democracies...

  

Lowy

Understanding the Chinese Military Threat to Australia, June 2026. China’s ability to direct military force against Australia operates primarily through domains other than direct strikes on the Australian landmass. Its ability to interdict Australia’s maritime trade, sever undersea communications infrastructure, conduct sophisticated cyber operations, and project naval power into Australian waters is robust and will grow substantially over the coming decade. China can already strike northern Australia with ballistic missiles deployed to its South China Sea outposts...

  

Lowy

Modern War and the Systemic Learning Deficit in Western Military Institutions, June 2026. Western military institutions exhibit a systemic learning deficit that prioritises exploitation of existing competencies over exploration of new solutions. The result is dangerously slow adaptation to battlefield innovations, demonstrated in Ukraine and Iran despite unprecedented access to openly available evidence. The inability to rapidly implement proven innovations is a failure of organisational culture, of promotion systems that reward conformity over innovation...

  

Lowy

Australian Security in an Era of Uncertainty: Views From the Defence Strategy Program in the Strategist: 2025-26 Edition, June 2026. It brings together articles published in ASPI’s The Strategist over the past 12 months, examining the most significant strategic, operational, technological and economic challenges facing Australia at a consequential moment in its history. The structure of the volume reflects the breadth of the challenges confronting Australia across five thematic parts: strategy and deterrence; regional security; Taiwan; capabilities; and defence spending...

  

ASPI

From Common Threats to Narrative Defence: An Intelligence-Led Mission Approach for Australia–Japan Cooperation, June 2026. Australia and Japan are both targets of state-linked disinformation designed to exploit historical grievances, domestic political divisions and alliance anxieties. Beijing’s reaction to Japan’s May 2026 intelligence reforms demonstrates that even legitimate democratic measures will be contested in the information domain. The two countries bring complementary strengths to this challenge. Australia has developed a comparatively mature legislative, transparency and public-attribution architecture for countering foreign interference...

  

ASPI

Synergies for the Future: Australia–South Korea Pathways in Strategic Defence Technology Cooperation, June 2026. Australia and the Republic of Korea face an increasingly complex Indo-Pacific security environment in which technological competition, industrial resilience and the ability to sustain advanced military capability have become central to national security. While both countries maintain strong alliance relationships with the United States, evolving Indo-Pacific dynamics increasingly encourage cooperation among technologically capable regional powers able to complement national strengths and address structural constraints. In this context...

  

ASPI

Pressure Points Part 3: China in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, June 2026. Using a range of tools, including a growing bluewater navy, paramilitary forces and localised policing cooperation arrangements, China ‘is steadily building a pattern of access, presence and influence that’s reshaping regional security dynamics.’ China’s long-term strategy of normalisation aims to create a region in which ‘its access is expected, and its influence is embedded.’ To achieve this, China has adopted distinct approaches in the Southwest Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and the immediate vicinity of Australia and New Zealand...

  

ASPI

Reading the Room: Redesigning Intelligence Product for the AI Age, June 2026. While intelligence collection and analysis have advanced significantly, the formats, delivery methods and user experience of intelligence products have changed far less. As ministers, policymakers and operational leaders increasingly expect information that is faster, more interactive, more tailored and easier to use, the report warns that intelligence risks losing relevance unless it adapts deliberately. Three plausible scenarios are explored: secure conversational AI interfaces that allow users to query intelligence holdings directly...

  

ASPI

Make Stuff Here…or Else: A Framework for Deciding What Australia Must Produce, Repair or Regenerate Domestically, June 2026. Australia’s prosperity rests on systems that appear permanent but depend on continuous, often unseen, inputs that arrive from beyond its borders. That model worked in an era of stable global trade, but recent shocks, from the Covid-19 pandemic to geopolitical disruption, have exposed a structural weakness. Australia must now shift from optimising for cost to securing continuity, and it must do so with urgency and discipline. This paper draws on public policy documents, industry case examples and published data to frame resilience as a practical national problem...

  

ASPI

Darwin Dialogue 2026 – From Exposure to Endurance: Competitive Architecture for High-Esg Mineral-Specific Supply Chains, June 2026. The Darwin Dialogue has become one of the Indo-Pacific’s leading forums for critical minerals, bringing together senior leaders from government, industry, finance, defence and strategic policy to address one of the defining economic and security challenges of our time: how democratic nations build trusted, resilient and competitive mineral supply chains. The 2026 Darwin Dialogue brought together participants from Australia, the United States, Japan, India, the Republic of Korea, Canada and partners across Europe and the Indo-Pacific to examine a hard reality...

  

ASPI

North of 26 South and the Security of Australia: Views From the Strategist Volume 13, June 2026. The articles are authored by a diverse group of experts across national security, economic policy, infrastructure, regional development and defence. Together, they examine how northern Australia is increasingly central to Australia’s strategic posture, economic resilience and long-term national preparedness. Volume 13 also features a foreword by Senator the Hon Nita Green, Assistant Minister for Northern Australia. This foreword frames northern Australia as central to the nation’s security, economic resilience, and regional engagement at a time of growing global uncertainty...

  

ASPI

Chips, Code, and Control: Rewriting the Economics of Old Tech Wars, June 2026. Is the emerging global technology order still defined by a single United States–China rivalry, or has that binary narrative already become obsolete? This paper argues that contemporary techno-geopolitics is no longer a unified “tech cold war,” but a fragmented competition across two distinct domains: semiconductors and artificial intelligence ecosystems. The semiconductor contest is shaped by export controls, manufacturing chokepoints, strategic denial, and industrial subsidies...

  

ISDP

The Social Dimensions of CPEC in Pakistan, June 2026. This issue brief examines the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as a social and political process, not merely an infrastructure project. It argues that while CPEC has improved energy supply, connectivity and investment prospects, its benefits remain unevenly distributed. The analysis focuses on five dimensions: regional inequality, debt and transparency, gender, environment, and securitization. It shows that CPEC has strengthened older patterns of centralized decision-making and uneven development in Pakistan...

  

ISDP

Security Without Institutions: China’s Global Security Initiative and Fragmenting Order, June 2026. China’s Global Security Initiative (GSI), introduced in April 2022, is a norm-driven foreign policy framework through which Beijing seeks to reshape global security governance without building a formal collective security system. Anchored in sovereignty, regime stability, and “indivisible security,” the GSI prioritizes state authority and non-intervention over conditionality and accountability, functioning less as a fixed doctrine than as a flexible instrument within China’s “four-in-one” architecture linking development, governance, security, and civilizational narratives...

  

ISDP

The ‘Hormuz Shock,’ China’s 15th FYP, and Guangdong’s Energy Dilemma, June 2026. This issue brief examines how the Middle East conflict, particularly the disruption of energy flows through the Strait of Hormuz, reinforces the strategic logic underpinning China’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030). Contrary to analyses that focus primarily on great-power competition or China’s diplomatic posture, the brief argues that the crisis highlights a fundamental challenge for China’s technological modernization agenda: the dependence of advanced industrial development on secure...

  

ISDP

China’s Strategic Corridor in Pakistan: Progress, Dependency, and the Uncertain Future of CPEC, June 2026. The China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was promoted as a transformative partnership to modernize Pakistan’s economy, address energy shortages, and enhance regional connectivity. More than a decade later, however, CPEC increasingly reflects Pakistan’s gradual transformation into a “Silk Cage” state, where infrastructure connectivity and economic dependence are closely linked to China’s expanding strategic influence. This Focus Asia paper argues that while CPEC Phase I delivered visible gains in roads, energy infrastructure, digital connectivity...

  

ISDP

Report of the Taiwan-Nordic Forum 2026: Resilience as Defense, April 2026. The forum, organized by the Stockholm Taiwan Center of the Institute for Security and Development Policy, served as a platform for Nordic, Baltic, and Taiwanese experts and scholars to discuss emerging common defense challenges linked to gray-zone tactics in Taiwan, the Nordic, and the Baltic regions. It was the first time the forum extended its scope to Baltic states...

  

ISDP

Maritime Order in Asia: Australia and the Indo-Pacific, March 2026. This report summarizes Professor Bec Strating’s presentation, which explored Australia’s maritime security agenda. The discussion examined how Australia’s identity as an ocean-dependent state shapes its security outlook across the Indian, Pacific, and Southern Oceans. It further explored Australia’s construction and promotion of the Indo-Pacific as a strategic maritime region in the era of shifting global power dynamics. In particular, the discussion focused on the context of intensifying the U.S.-China competition, uncertainty in traditional alliances, and the growing importance of middle powers’ engagement...

  

ISDP

Intra-Industry Trade and Export-Circumventing Transshipment, June 2026. Assessments of export circumvention based on casual observations and aggregate data can be misleading. When the characteristics of such activities are carefully considered, the suspected circumventions through Southeast Asian economies are likely to be far smaller than press accounts suggest, and they vary considerably across products and countries. The key policy implication is that, given the more limited scale of these activities, responses should be targeted at the product and/or country level, accompanied by effective law enforcement and inter-governmental cooperation...

  

ISEAS

Language Identity & Management in Singapore: Updated Findings from the IPS Survey on Race, Religion and Language, May 2026. This paper analyses language-related findings from the IPS Survey on Race, Religion and Language (RRL), conducted in 2013, 2018, and 2024. The latest wave is based on an approximately 45-minute self-administered survey conducted from April to August 2024, with a sample of 4,000 Singapore residents derived from Department of
Statistics household listings. This included a booster sample of about 1,000 Malay and Indian respondents to support finer-grained comparisons...

  

IPS

Latest APEC publications:

  

APEC
Latest ADB Working Paper Series:  

ADB
Latest ADBI Working Paper Series:  

ADB
Latest ADB Publications:  

ADB

Asian Development Review, Vol. 43, No. 2, June 2026 (Full Report). A mini symposium on rural development, sustainability, and welfare highlights the evolving nature of rural development, looking at environmental land use policy, infrastructure investment, and targeted redistribution. It examines findings on the Green Great Wall program in the People’s Republic of China, rural road expansion in Nepal, and Thailand’s welfare card program. The articles show that the rural sector continues to matter because it remains central to livelihoods, sustainability, and equity.

   ADB

 

 

  

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

  

 
 
 

  

 
 

View Previous Highlights