Strategic choices for Southeast Asia are becoming difficult amid structural transitions in the international system. With the US-China strategic contest at the global level and China-Japan competition at the regional level, balancing relations with competing powers will not be easy for Southeast Asia.

The knock-out punch was never delivered in the international campaign against Islamic State. Now it is emerging from the Syrian desert to fight on.

The forces of political populism in the United States are too entrenched to be expunged by the defeat of Donald Trump on 3 November 2020. The issue is systemic, not a consequence of leadership idiosyncrasies.