China’s re-emergence and its assertive policies in the South China Sea over the past decades have led to the belief that Southeast Asia has no choice but to become part of China’s zone of influence. However, Southeast Asia has many choices. This lecture will look at the longer history of Southeast Asia and suggest the many options that ASEAN will have in the coming decades.

Professor Kishore Mahbubani is Senior Advisor (University & Global Relations) and Professor in the Practice of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, where he also served as Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy from 2004 to 2017. Before that, he served in the Singapore Foreign Service for 33 years, notably as Ambassador to the UN and twice as President of the UN Security Council. He writes extensively on public policy issues. He has authored seven books: Can Asians Think, Beyond the Age of Innocence, The New Asian Hemisphere, The Great Convergence (selected by Financial Times as one of the best books of 2013), Can Singapore Survive?, and co-author of The ASEAN Miracle. His latest book, Has the West Lost it? A Provocation was published in April 2018.