Hunter Marston
@hmarston.bsky.social
Director for Southeast Asia & Asia Power Index Lead @lowyinstitute.bsky.social. Nonresident @instglobalaffairs.bsky.social. Adjunct Fellow @seasia.csis.org. Associate @9Dashline.com. Ultra runner. Dad.
General Secretary Tô Lâm will reportedly visit Australia in August. I shared some thoughts on the state of the Australia-Vietnam partnership @lowyinstitute.bsky.social: www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpre...
To Lam heads to Australia – but Vietnam still won’t pick a side
Australia and Vietnam are drawing closer not out of shared strategy but shared uncertainty about the great powers.
lowyinstitute.org
"Southeast Asia would prefer US-China ties remain lukewarm, neither leading to a new Cold War nor the creation of a new G-2 which undercuts their interests" www.9dashline.com/article/sout... | by @hmarston.bsky.social
Southeast Asian states are looking for options, but the United States isn’t giving them much to work with
Written by Hunter Marston. The recent Russia-ASEAN Summit is only the latest example of a more diffuse and loosely organised world order, in which Washington plays a less central role, and its rivals ...
9dashline.com
To discuss regional dynamics between #China and the #US in Southeast Asia and beyond, I was happy to welcome @hmarston.bsky.social from the @lowyinstitute.bsky.social to my YouTube channel. many different topics of interest from #Taiwan to the #StraitofHormuz. youtu.be/DZNZESpnwhM
Power, Competition, and Conflict in Asia (Interview with Hunter Marston)
YouTube video by Asia Political Review
youtu.be
"Singapore’s defamation law is rooted in English law, which has historically placed greater weight on protecting a person’s reputation than on safeguarding speech, as the First Amendment does in the United States." www.nytimes.com/2026/07/14/w...
Bloomberg Loses Landmark Libel Case in Singapore
A judge ruled in favor of two Singaporean ministers in a closely watched defamation trial seen as a significant test of the country’s libel laws and their implications for press freedom.
nytimes.com
For the latest episode of the @lowyinstitute.bsky.social Conversations podcast, I spoke to Lina Alexandra & @chongjaian.bsky.social about Southeast Asian responses to instability in the Middle East, US-China competition & the ongoing crisis in #Myanmar: www.lowyinstitute.org/podcast/sout...
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lowyinstitute.org
“Vietnam is moving ahead, while Thailand is beset by border and security issues left and right and is stuck internally, still trying to draft a new constitution amid declining economic growth.” www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin...
Mainland SE Asia's shifting dynamics
To see how Thailand is really doing, one needs to be outside the country. On a recent work trip to Hanoi, I found it inescapable that Thailand continues to fall behind even as its leaders pretend othe...
bangkokpost.com
I hope you're covering this fresh angle in your weekly column @erincook.bsky.social www.scmp.com/news/asia/so...
Myanmar’s junta says things back to normal. Yangon clubbers don’t believe that
Despite the lifting of curfew five years after the military coup, party-goers still wait until dawn to sneak home.
scmp.com
I'm looking for book (or article) recommendations to better understand Laos' foreign relations. I welcome any suggestions!
Refreshing to see a novel use for drones given so much recent coverage is devoted to their lethality & how they have revolutionized warfighting. This seems like a game changer for search & rescue contingencies in combat scenarios. www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06...
Sea drone saves US helicopter crew downed in waters near Strait of Hormuz
A look at the US Corsair sea drone used in a first of its kind mission to rescue two helicopter crew shot down near the Strait of Hormuz.
abc.net.au
Shared some thoughts on last weekend's Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore #SLD26 @lowyinstitute.bsky.social: www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpre...
At Shangri-La, Washington and Southeast Asia talked past each other
The Dialogue’s starkest divide wasn’t between Washington and Beijing – it was between Washington and its own partners.
lowyinstitute.org
Shared some thoughts on last weekend's Shangri La Dialogue in Singapore #SLD26 @lowyinstitute.bsky.social: www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpre...
At Shangri-La, Washington and Southeast Asia talked past each other
The Dialogue’s starkest divide wasn’t between Washington and Beijing – it was between Washington and its own partners.
lowyinstitute.org
“For Indonesia, future neutrality pressures may not begin with requests for military bases or troop deployments. They may begin with more ordinary forms of cooperation such as maintenance arrangements, logistics support, or technical infrastructure.” www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpre...
Indonesia, Hercules maintenance, and the neutrality question
A maintenance deal for C-130 Hercules aircraft may be routine in peacetime – in a US–China contingency, Indonesia’s legal exposure would change.
lowyinstitute.org
"🇨🇳 is not ‘winning’ the competition in Southeast Asia in any straightforward sense. Yet it is benefitting from the 🇺🇸 appearing increasingly unreliable on the issues Southeast Asian states care most about, including trade, investment and predictable engagement." eastasiaforum.org/2026/05/16/b...
Beijing profits from US drift in Southeast Asia
Beijing is benefitting from Washington’s inconsistent engagement and punitive economic statecraft in Southeast Asia
eastasiaforum.org
Inviting #Myanmar’s junta-appointed leader Min Aung Hlaing, a war criminal, back into the ASEAN fold ahead of November’s summit would surrender what little leverage ASEAN has with nothing in return aside from easing the embarrassment of their failed 5 pt consensus: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Cambodia Signals Possible Asean Reopening for Myanmar Leaders
Sentiment is warming among some Southeast Asian nations toward easing Myanmar’s isolation five years after the overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi, with diplomats signaling a desire to bring the crisis-torn...
bloomberg.com
Philippine President Marcos on regional uncertainties surrounding the ongoing conflict in Iran: "We’re now in this limbo situation where we don’t know how long it’s going to last." apnews.com/article/asea...
Alarmed ASEAN leaders adopt crisis plan to mitigate backlash from Middle East war
Southeast Asian leaders have adopted in an annual summit a contingency plan to mitigate the impact of the Iran war on their people and economies but acknowledged it will be difficult to enforce comple...
apnews.com
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) doesn't mince words re: SE Asia's importance: "we can’t let China have home field advantage in the Indo-Pacific. We’ve got to be there in the South China Sea. We’ve got to be there in Southeast Asia. And that’s where our focus has to be." www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/o...
"The root of Myanmar’s crisis is political: as long as the military holds power, the country will be at war, and the economy will underperform" buff.ly/P2GLJ4Y | by @hmarston.bsky.social
9DASHLINE — Myanmar's future will not resemble its past
Written by Hunter Marston. The root of Myanmar’s crisis is political: as long as the military holds power, the country will be at war, and the economy will underperform.
buff.ly
Anutin resumes push for a land bridge in Southern Thailand, Thaksin gets his parole and Suriya finds himself in a big bureaucratic controversy. The past week in Thailand: www.coffeeparliament.com/p/morning-co...
Morning Coffee Briefing: Land Bridge, Thaksin Parole, Agro Transfer Controversy
New life for an old scheme and an eventful week for Pheu Thai
coffeeparliament.com
If confirmed, this meeting shows the special influence Beijing has in #Myanmar. It has been nearly 3 years since former Thai FM Don Pramudwinai met Daw Suu Kyi in detention in July 2023. Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen was rebuffed when he requested a virtual meeting with ASSK in 2024.
Insightful piece by Charles Lyons-Jones that probes deeper than most of the media commentary I have read about King Charles' state visit to the US: www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpre...
On state visit to the US, Charles III cameos as King of Australia
Touting AUKUS to Trump signals a new kind of Commonwealth soft power.
lowyinstitute.org
Odd that #Myanmar’s military dominated government waited until after elections & five years post-coup to resume the extremely unpopular #Myitsone Dam project in Kachin State. Struggling to understand why it would do so now when it needs political legitimacy more than ever. www.moi.gov.mm/news/82113
ကချင်ပြည်နယ်ဝန်ကြီးချုပ် ဧရာဝတီမြစ်ဆုံ - မြစ်ညာမြစ်ဝှမ်း ရေအားလျှပ်စစ်စီမံကိန်းဆိုင်ရာ အထောက်အကူပြုရေးနှင့်ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရေး ကချင်ပြည်နယ်ဒေသခံကော်မတီအဖွဲ့ဝင်များနှင့် ပြည်သူလူထုများ တွေ့ဆုံ | Mini...
ကချင်ပြည်နယ်အတွင်း ဧရာဝတီမြစ်ဆုံ-မြစ်ညာ မြစ်ဝှမ်းရေအားလျှပ်စစ်စီမံကိန်းဆိုင်ရာ အထောက်အကူပြုရေးနှင့် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်ရေး ကချင်ပြည်နယ်ဒေသခံကော်မတီအဖွဲ့ဝင်များအနေဖြင့် ၁၄ ကြိမ်မြောက် ဒေသခံပြည်သူများအာ...
moi.gov.mm
I shared some thoughts with @davidhutt.bsky.social @deutschewelle.dw.com on Wang Yi’s Southeast Asia tour: www.dw.com/en/china-see...
China seeks Southeast Asia gains as US influence falters
Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Southeast Asia aims to portray Beijing as a steady regional partner as the region grapples with the fallout from the war in Iran, tariffs and doubts over Washington...
dw.com
"Perceptions of unpredictability — from the imposition of tariffs to a lack of sustained economic and security focus on the Indo-Pacific — have reinforced doubts about Washington’s reliability." asiatimes.com/2026/04/iran...
Iran war is accelerating SE Asia's drift from America - Asia Times
Southeast Asia is watching the US-Israel conflict with Iran — and quietly drawing conclusions. Most countries have adopted a policy of non-interference,
asiatimes.com
Great episode of #SoutheastAsia Radio @seasia.csis.org ft. Adrian Ang @usp-rsis.bsky.social @gregpoling.bsky.social @elinanoor.bsky.social: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
Evolving Southeast Asian Perspectives of the United States with Adrian Ang
Podcast Episode · Southeast Asia Radio · April 24 · 33m
podcasts.apple.com
