Southeast Asia’s security and prosperity are dependent and determined by great-power relations. When the great powers are at relative peace and in rough balance, Southeast Asia can find common ground to play a central organising role in its wider neighbourhood. Such a role was operationalised and performed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the longstanding regional organisation popularly known as ASEAN. When the United States and the Soviet Union locked horns in the Cold War, the region was divided and the organisation was incomplete. When the Cold War wound down in the late 1980s, Southeast Asia came together as one, while ASEAN went from strength to strength to reach its pinnacle with the launch of the East Asia Summit and the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting. But the US-China rivalry and conflict have divided Southeast Asia anew, thereby undermining ASEAN unity, centrality, and community. Southeast Asia’s divisions along the US-China fault line and ASEAN’s increasing ineffectiveness adversely impinge on the wider neighbourhood in Asia, particularly on Taiwan. A more cohesive and effective Southeast Asia would be favourable to Taiwan’s geostrategic drive southwards away from China and Northeast Asia’s security dilemmas. A divided Southeast Asia will require Taiwan to be adaptive and nifty in its geostrategic forays among ASEAN member states. This seminar will aim to tease out the contours and dynamics of Southeast Asia’s and ASEAN’s divisiveness and its implications for Taiwan.
Thitinan Pongsudhirak is Professor of International Relations at Chulalongkorn University’s faculty of political science and Senior Fellow at its Institute of Security and International Studies in Bangkok. Thitinan has held visiting positions at Johns Hopkins University, Stanford University, University of Victoria in New Zealand, and Yangon University, and currently serves on several editorial boards of academic journals, including Journal of Democracy. His comments and opinion articles have been published widely in the media. In 2015, he was recognised for excellence in opinion writing by Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA). During 2017-present, he holds the appointment as International Advisory Board Member of Asia-New Zealand Foundation (ANZF). In March 2018, he was appointed ASEAN@50 Fellow by New Zealand’s Minister of Foreign Affairs & Trade. In May 2019, he was selected as Australia-ASEAN Fellow at Sydney’s Lowy Institute. From 2021-present, he is senior advisor for geopolitics with Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES). From January 2023-present, he is independent expert of ADMM+ Cybersecurity and Information Centre of Excellence (ACICE). In January 2024, Thitinan was awarded a commendation by the Japanese government for his work on Japan-Thailand and Japan-ASEAN relations. During October 2024—March 2025, he is a visiting professor at the London School of Economics. For the past two decades, he has been a columnist with The Bangkok Post. Thitinan completed degrees at the University of California at Santa Barbara (with Distinction) and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, with a PhD from London School of Economics which won the UK’s best dissertation prize in 2002.
