Regional Dialogue

Filming across borders with cinematographers from Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia, this piece explores how collaboration turns cinema into a shared space where cultures meet, stories deepen, and Southeast Asia is seen together.

From Sarawak forests to global cafés, the story of Liza A. Ahngau traces Liberica coffee, memory, and resilience in challenging market-driven narratives and reconnecting coffee with land, community, and climate survival beyond a simple cup of coffee.

This E-paper explores how Southeast Asia can advance sustainability by integrating environmental integrity, social equity, and economic resilience. The region’s extraordinary biodiversity and cultural diversity coexist with rapid industrial expansion, environmental degradation, and widening social inequalities.

This E-paper examines participatory democracy in Southeast Asia at a critical historical moment marked by democratic backsliding, populism, and deepening polarization.

After decades of struggle, Timor-Leste is finding hope in coffee. From colonial Arabica roots to the resilient Híbrido de Timor, organic beans gain global recognition. Yet climate change and weak systems threaten it. Can collective action turn coffee into national hope?

Southeast Asian civil society is increasingly shaped by a geopolitical language it did not choose. As great-power rivalry intensifies, funding declines, security narratives harden, and civic space narrows, groups defending human rights, democracy, and environmental justice are pushed into survival mode. 

Vietnam’s coffee exports hit a record $8.4bn in 2024–2025, cementing its status as the world’s Robusta powerhouse. However, behind the boom, farmers in the Central Highlands face droughts, floods, and climate stress, thus testing the future of the “Robusta King.”

In Indonesia, the coffee industry is more than a simple cup; it is a livelihood, providing jobs for more than a million people, including farmers and workers. Yet, this vital industry is at risk due to climate change, resulting in financial losses due to declining yields and more farm inputs.

This E-paper explores ecological wisdom in Southeast Asia as a framework to rethink resilience, justice, and sovereignty amid accelerating climate and development pressures. 

ASEAN pulled off a deft diplomatic performance at its final summit for 2025, combining seemingly conflicting initiatives – such as hosting Trump and getting to know Brazil's Lula and South Africa's Ramaphosa – under its wide, welcoming tent. Timor-Leste is finally a full ASEAN member. 

This E-paper examines the longstanding tension between ASEAN’s creative vision and its limited concrete action in promoting social and environmental justice across Southeast Asia.

The paper asks if ASEAN should reconsider a more flexible understanding of non-violence by empowering it’s existing institutions, and through adhering to the principles of democracy and inclusion of community interests.

Indonesia, the largest economy in Southeast Asia, should have assumed a leadership role in the region. However, under President Prabowo Subianto’s leadership, its policies and agreements with the United States and China lack of direction, impacting the ASEAN as a whole. 

Southeast Asia’s deepening ties with BRICS signal a move to diversify partnerships and amplify their voice in global governance. With Indonesia joining it and Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam showing interest, leaders see BRICS as a platform for multilateralism, South-South cooperation, and economic reform – rather than a turn against the West.

From rooftop gardens to hospital courtyards, cities are reimagining their relationship with food through urban farming. What began as small community projects has grown into a movement that brings resilience and sustainability into everyday life. With initiatives ranging from skyscraper farms to aquaponics systems in public spaces, urban food production is gaining ground. 

After years of deliberation, ASEAN is set to adopt the ASEAN Declaration on the Right to a Safe, Clean, Healthy, and Sustainable Environment (ADER) at the 47th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur in October 2025. Marking the region’s first dedicated framework on environmental rights within ASEAN’s human rights system, ADER is the result of over two years of collaboration between AICHR and ASOEN and with inputs from region-wide CSOs.

Healthy river ecosystems are vital for life. This article presents an innovative approach that fosters positive impacts on the ecological health of rivers, promoting the long-term sustainability of both social well-being and riverine environments.

This article explores the 2025 Master Plan on ASEAN Connectivity (MPAC) and its partnership with China’s Belt Road Initiative (BRI), which may open the region to more opportunities in commerce, tourism, and environmentally sustainable travel options.

Ecological threats like poaching, habitat destruction and human-induced climate change not only endanger animals but also plants, in particular highly sought-after ones, like orchids. Malaysia is endowed with rich biodiversity which includes thousands of wild orchid species. 

Multilateralism is vital for addressing global challenges like climate change, yet the outcomes of COP29 in Baku exposed a stark disconnect between high-level policies and grassroots realities.