Author: Denis Hew

Published: 02 July 2026

ASEAN’s decades-long growth model built on openness, regional integration and embeddedness in global supply chains is under strain from US–China rivalry, trade protectionism, development divides and climate vulnerability. The concept of economic security should be recalibrated around active resilience-building, people-centred policy and deeper institutional reform. While the May 2026 ASEAN Summit showed some progress on these fronts, ASEAN struggles with implementation discipline. ASEAN’s capacity for collective action is itself becoming a critical form of economic security, but the window to act is narrowing.

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