We discuss a forthcoming research article to be published at the Comparative Political Studies by Jonathan Chu and colleagues on whether people are willing to trade-off democracy for desirable outcomes.  The paper using experiments show that while free and fair elections are a desired, people in the six countries they studied (including US, Japan, Italy) are willing to trade it off to avoid living in dangerous societies.

Recent news about Australia's pacts with Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu has highlighted the important of geopolitical competition in the South Pacific.  However, despite the announcement of these pacts, they were not officially signed in time from the Pacific Island Forum.  What are these pacts? Are there outstanding issues that preventing the pacts from being signed?  We are joined by Henrietta McNeill-Stowers, Michael Kabuni, and Anna Naupa of the Australian National University to discuss these news.

Poland invoked NATO article 4 due to Russian drones violating Polish airspace.  Immigration agents in the US raided a South Korean EV plant in the state of Georgia and deported over 300 South Korean workers.  

We hosted a conference on "Asia-Pacific states: navigating and managing global disorder" a week ago.  We share insights we learned from the conference.  US Trump administration is planning to rebrand Pentagon to Department of War.  The cost of this renaming alone can be in billions of dollars.  

What happened or not in the Alaska summit between Trump and Putin?  Two Chinese ships collided while doing a pincer move chasing a Philippine coast guard vessel.  Will there be escalation in the future?

We discuss a paper on the political economy of geoeconomic power and discuss what theory means when applied to real world empirics.  In an New York Times guest essay authored by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer titled "Why We Remade the Global Order," Greer argues that the agreement between the EU and the US made at Turnberry resort is a new world order much like Bretton Woods set the postwar world order.  Is the comparison valid?  We discuss the essay and assess its claims.

The Thai-Cambodia border skirmish has now escalated with both sides firing artillery across their borders.  Why the escalation now?  Japan's LDP loses its upper house majority and what does it mean for PM Ishiba's tenure as LDP party leader.  Taiwan has a recall election in a bid to unseat KMT legislators and allow the DPP to regain legislative majority that the ruling party lost in the January 2024 general election.  So what is the result and what are the implications of this recall election on party politics in Taiwan?

White House has sent out tariff letters to numerous countries but the the import taxes do not take effect till August 1st.  FM Penny Wong gave a speech in the ASEAN meeting about managing differences between allies.  Other interesting news such as the confirmation grilling of the US ambassador-designate to Singapore, the advanced RAF fighter jet stuck in India, and how Myanmar military junta received the US tariff letters.

China's FM had a meeting with EU counterpart to discuss outstanding issues on bilateral relations.  A Philippine documentary "Food Delivery" on the South China Sea has received attention such that there are active lobbying by Chinese diplomats to not show the documentary.  There is still continuing fallout from the leaked call of the Thai PM with former Cambodian PM.  Thai PM is suspended pending investigation while calls for her resignation gets louder.

US bombed Iran's nuclear facility about a week after Israel attacked Iran.  Why did the US attack now?  Will their be a fallout from this decision?  Is there a risk of a widening regional conflict?  Thailand's border conflict with Cambodia has a new twist.  A private phone conversation between the Thai PM and Cambodia's ex-strongman leader Hun Sen was leaked and led to calls for resignation of the PM. 

Israel attacked Iran to decapitate its nuclear program and Iran retaliated with missile and drone attacks.  Will this turn into a regional war? NZ PM will visit Beijing, with lots going on domestically and internationally what are some of their likely talking points?  Pentagon has decided to review the AUKUS arrangements catching Australia by surprise and also ahead of an upcoming visit by the Australian PM to the US. US Army celebrated its 250th anniversary with a military parade which are rare in the US.

South Korean liberal politician Lee Jae-myung won the presidency.  With Korean society so polarised is this a 'poisoned chalice.'  Trump administration in a spat with California threatened to cut federal funding, in turn California governor Gavin Newsom threatened to not turn over California's federal taxes.  What is this spat all about?  Thailand and Cambodia are having a dispute over part of its shared border.  The militaries of both countries have been mobilised. What does this mean for the concept of ASEAN as a security community?

Shangrila Dialogue was held in Singapore last week.  French president Macron spoke of the importance of Europe to engage Asia.  US defense secretary Hegseth warns about hedging and implores regional states to spend at least 5% on their defense.  Interestingly, China did not send their defense minister instead an academic delegation from their defense university.

US naval ship visits New Zealand after PLA Navy ships showed up in the Tasman Sea several months ago.  With NZ planning to increase defense spending does this mean a closer defense relationship between the two countries since the breakup of ANZUS in the late 1980s?  Philippine midterm elections shows the strength of political dynasties in the Philippines and the seeming weakness of Philippine political institutions.  Is this a sign of poor institutional design?  Wall Street Journal reports that US is planning to reduce the number of soldiers based in South Korea and Singapore warns foreign embassies not to interfere in domestic affairs.

Prominent international relations scholar, Joseph Nye, passes away.  We chat about his contribution to the study of international relations.  Catholic Church has a new pope and the first born in the US.  Asia's demand for US dollar is waning, what does it mean and what are likely implications?  US is upping intelligence gathering on Greenland and Danish government protests this action.

The general elections of Canada, Australia, and Singapore returned incumbents and shows voters are voting for stability and steady hands at this time of global uncertainty.

NZ FM gave a speech at the East-West Center in Honolulu titled "Enduring Pacific Partnerships" that talks about the importance of NZ relations with US especially in the context of Pacific partnerships.  Trump and Zelensky met just before the funeral mass of Pope Francis where Trump noted that Russia may not be serious about ending the war with Ukraine.  Lastly, the caution and warning about foreign influence in the upcoming Singapore general elections.

The new State of Southeast Asia Survey is out and provides a snapshot of public opinions from SEA about all things that concern the region.  Here is a link to the survey: https://www.iseas.edu.sg/centres/asean-studies-centre/state-of-southeast-asia-survey/the-state-of-southeast-asia-2025-survey-report/  

Trump's liberation day announcement and the 'reciprocal' tariffs led to stock market crash and high market volatility.  With global stock markets shedding trillions of dollars from its value and the eventual hit on US Treasury bonds as investors dump the bonds and yields on the bonds rise, Trump put a temporary 90-day halt on the tariffs.  President Trump and the US blinked as the market taught it a harsh lesson in international economics.  So what happened?  In this discussion, we chat about the market dynamics and political economy of 'liberation to liquidation' week.

South Korean constitutional court removes president Yoon for declaring an illegal martial law in early December 2024. New presidential election is set for June 3rd.  Trump administration launched the so called 'liberation day' by slapping 'reciprocal' tariffs on its own major trading partners.  Markets are reacting with the significant declines of major stock markets.