Welcome to the FPA Southeast Asia blog!  Southeast Asia is a diverse region, home to 11 nations:  Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Singapore.  These nations have half a billion citizens who speak languages from more than five different language families.  Further, the region is home to the major religions of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Christianity, as well a multitude of indigenous faiths.

Southeast Asia is rich with agricultural and natural resources, and due to location more than half of the world’s annual merchant shipping  traffic passes through it.   For example,  80% of Japanese and Chinese oil imports travel through these sea-lanes.  Despite this, the intra-regional trade between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) nations still hovers at only 25%.  The positive externalities from intra-regional and extra-regional trade have not come close to capacity.

Due to geopolitical realities, China, India, Japan, and the United States will continue to seek to increase their ties with the region.  This is all happening in tandem with a regional move toward greater integration.  As the global center of power slowly shifts from the Pacific Rim, ASEAN will have the potential to serve as a fulcrum between established and rising powers, enabling it to become a player in its own right.

This blog will seek to provide a deeper understanding to the headlines produced by these events by bringing critical analysis to current events and exploring local and eclectic stories,  often overlooked by international media.