By Amy Searight & Brian Harding — On October 20, Indonesian president Joko Widodo, universally known as Jokowi, will be sworn in for a second and final five-year term. Elected with over 55 percent of the vote in a rematch…
By Adrien Chorn — The recent warrants issued by the Yangon regional government for the arrest of Ashin Wirathu, a Buddhist monastic figurehead of Myanmar’s ultranationalist anti-Muslim movement, may produce complications for Myanmar’s ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party…
By Kartikeya Singh — This month, three of India’s “seven sisters” states (Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland), those located in the country’s ethnically distinct northeast, head to the polls. Situated in a region long plagued by security challenges and poor infrastructure,…
Who is he? Anies Baswedan is the newly elected governor of Jakarta. He most recently served as Indonesia’s minister of Education and Culture from 2014 to 2016 and as rector of Paramadina University from 2007 to 2015. Well regarded for…
By Geoffrey Hartman — Indonesian president Joko Widodo — commonly known as “Jokowi” — in early August addressed criticism that his government is taking an authoritarian turn with a joke, asking the crowd at speeches in East Jakarta and Solo:…
By Murray Hiebert — Much of Vice President Mike Pence’s trip to northeast Asia has focused on containing North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, but when he lands in Indonesia on April 20 his attention will pivot to reassuring the rest…
By Lance Jackson — Identity is often an explicit factor in the politics of many Southeast Asian nations, whether it is the rural-urban divide in Thailand, language in Malaysia or ethnicity in Indonesia. Appeals to identity for political purposes have…
By Alisha Sud — With India’s Parliament beginning its winter session on November 16, domestic political attention is largely focused on bills that will be introduced and considered during the session. Overall, the government’s legislative agenda seems to dispel the…
By Ellen Chambers — Renewed communal violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State underscores the imperative for greater emphasis on peacebuilding in the country’s troubled west. The recently established Rakhine State Advisory Commission, led by former-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, is essential…
By Phuong Nguyen & Conor Cronin — For many Southeast Asian governments, terrorism threats rank among their top security concerns. Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore — no strangers to dealing with violent Islamist threats — have been on heightened alert for…
