Affairs: Geopolitics / Asia
Better together
Amid rising global tensions, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is – quietly –becoming more influential than ever before.
Visitors to the secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) in Jakarta are greeted in the lobby by a sculpture of two men touching fingers through a glass screen. “Mirror Man” celebrates the unity of humankind. That might seem inappropriately cuddly in these turbulent times but bringing different perspectives together in service of common interests is something that the association does remarkably well.
Though it is a political and economic union made up of 10 southeast Asian member states – Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos…
