Engaging the Eagle - Exploring U.S. Foreign Policy in Southeast Asia

The U.S. has been a strategic actor in the Indo-Pacific for decades, but it is facing an increasingly fragmented and multipolar world. Even as Washington engages its partners and allies in the region, fixed alliances in the vein of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) are too rigid and disruptive for regional actors to accept. Rather, smaller, more nimble coalitions on specific issues hav...

What is the state of the presidential campaign as the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former-President Donald Trump enters the final stretch? How are the candidates faring in critical battleground states? Are the polls accurate in this election cycle? What campaign strategies are Harris and Trump pursuing and what difference, if any, will they make on Election Day? What are the domes...

The results of the U.S. election will have important implications for most countries, including China. There may be a broad consensus on the need to compete with China among both the Democrat and Republican parties, but a Harris presidency would offer a relatively familiar set of challenges as compared to a second Trump administration. From the threat of 60% tariffs on Chinese imports to potential...

As U.S.-China competition heats up, one area of concern for security scholars is that of a potential conflict over Taiwan. Some U.S. scholars and analysts suggest that the U.S. should abandon its long-standing approach of strategic ambiguity in favour of strategic clarity. Meanwhile, Chinese officials and scholars have expressed increasing concerns about changes in the U.S. One China Policy that h...

To the layperson, especially one on the other side of the world, US election procedures seem confusing and needlessly complicated. How many races are being held in November? How does the electoral college work? We’ve heard all these questions and more from our colleagues and friends over the past few weeks, so we thought it’d be helpful to answer them in a special episode.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s whirlwind tour across six countries in the Indo-Pacific region has had important implications for U.S. engagement in the region. His busy schedule included two two-plus-two meetings in Manila and Tokyo, where Mr. Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met their Philippine and Japanese counterparts for high-level discussions. These meetings also pro...

In U.S. politics, two weeks can be an eternity – but this past fortnight has been especially long. Since President Joe Biden’s suspension of his re-election campaign and endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris on 21 July, the formerly fractious Democrat Party coalesced behind VP Harris’ election bid in little over a week. With record-breaking numbers of donations, first-time donors and new cam...

The national convention of the Republican Party took place amid a series of momentous developments, ranging from historic supreme court rulings to an assassination attempt against Former President Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania. The Convention officially sealed his nomination as the GOP’s candidate and the undisputed leader of the party, while his appointment of Senator J.D. Vance also pu...

The Shangri-La Dialogue (SLD) is a track 1 intergovernmental security conference held in Singapore that gathers participants from across the region to discuss issues such as U.S. leadership in the Indo-Pacific. This year’s iteration of the summit saw competing visions for regional cooperation offered by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun, the former outlining...

The emergence of a web of scam compounds in Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos is not just an issue for Mekong countries. The criminal syndicates that operate from these compounds are estimated to steal over US$43.8 billion from Mekong countries every year and conduct their financial and administrative operations in other Southeast Asian countries. This poses a series of challenges for the United States....

As the civil conflict in Myanmar rages on, there are ongoing questions about how regional actors such as ASEAN and the United States should calibrate their responses to the crisis. In particular, is there a practical case for the value of democracy for global interests such as peace, security and development? How are these efforts being received in Southeast Asia? Join us for a conversation with A...

As U.S.-China competition heats up in the field of technology, Southeast Asian economies find themselves in a unique position with both benefits and risks. Investments have poured into the region from multiple parties, seeking to take advantage of factors such as mineral wealth and low labour costs to manufacture crucial components for EV supply chains. However, there are geopolitical risks that m...

From Europe to the Middle East, numerous crises have emerged during the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden. This has fuelled debates over whether the U.S. has the capacity to address all of them at once – or, as some have argued, whether the U.S. should prioritise its interests and pick its fights more carefully. Join us as we speak with Stephen Wertheim, Senior Fellow in the American Stat...

The April 2024 trilateral summit between the U.S., Japan and the Philippines was closely watched by regional observers. The Philippines, which has weathered increasing assertiveness from China, signed an agreement to maintain security and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. The U.S., meanwhile, is moving to integrate its defence industrial base with that of Japan, with a plan to use Japa...

As Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell recently described, the U.S. alliance with Japan is the “cornerstone of [U.S.] engagement in the Indo-Pacific.” This statement was underscored by Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s state visit to Washington in April 2024, outlining 70 agreements in areas ranging from defence to space and even culture at a press conference with U.S. President Joe Bide...

Here at the U.S. Programme in IDSS, RSIS, we monitor topics ranging from tech to U.S. economic policy. We also write about it too, with Adrian Ang (Coordinator, USP) and Kevin Chen (Associate Research Fellow, USP) recently writing Op-Eds on the TikTok bill and U.S. economic policy in Southeast Asia respectively. Tune in to hear them give a quick rundown on their Op-Eds. Adrian's Op-Ed: https:/...

Based on data from numerous news and polling agencies, all signs point to Prabowo Subianto being the likely winner of Indonesia’s 2024 Presidential election. Amid questions about the composition of his government and the policies he will prioritise while in office, an important consideration is what he will bring to the foreign policy table.   Prabowo’s election manifesto underlined climate change...

On 13 January 2024, Taiwan voters elected Lai Ching-te as their president, keeping the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in power for a third straight term. The election had been deemed as a crucial signal for Cross-Strait Relations for the next four years, with Beijing ominously framing it as a choice between “peace and war, prosperity and decline.”  There are concerns about how Beijing w...

As part of our efforts to better understand global security and political developments, RSIS regularly embarks on study trips to meet with and maintain close ties with fellow think tanks and agencies. One such trip was made to Washington, D.C., in early November 2023, where we met with experts from the Centre for Naval Analyses, Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Stimson Centre...

The United States and Myanmar have a long and storied history of bilateral ties. 10 years ago, ties appeared to be on the mend, with visits to the country by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama followed by the easing of sanctions. In recent years, however, the relationship has been defined by two crises: the Rohingya Crisis that erupted in 2017, and the February 2021...

China’s digital footprint has been expanding rapidly in Latin America in the last two decades. Neither the U.S.-China tech war nor the U.S.-led global campaign aimed at Chinese tech firms seemed to be able to reverse the trend. Much of the policy discussion in the western media surrounding China’s digital expansion focuses on the supply side, emphasizing the potential risks of adopting Chinese tec...

On October 1, the U.S. government narrowly avoided a government shutdown by passing a continuing resolution, a type of stopgap spending bill that funds federal agencies at 2022 levels for 45 days. The U.S. is one of the few political systems in the world in which federal agencies cannot spend or obligate any money without an appropriation or approval from Congress – in other words, if Congress fai...

U.S.-ASEAN ties have been in the spotlight since news emerged that U.S. President Joe Biden would not be attending the 43rd ASEAN Summit in Jakarta. While the U.S. has repeatedly affirmed in strategic documents and public statements alike that it supports ASEAN centrality, the absence of its Chief Executive at the grouping’s main Summit casts a pall over its approach to the region. In fact, given...

Singapore, the tiny island-state in Southeast Asia, has a close relationship with the United States. Singapore is Washington’s largest trade partner in Southeast Asia, while Washington is the republic’s largest foreign investor. The two also share close security ties, with US forces allowed to access Singapore’s air and naval bases on a rotational basis since 1990. The two are frequent participant...

After the U.S. pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) was styled as the new anchor of U.S. trade policy in the region, with the lofty ambition of establishing the “rules of the road” for regional trade. For the most part, however, it has yet to match this ambition with substance. Beyond a supply chain agreement and an agreement...