Critics of the attack on Iran by the United States and Israel point out that US President Donald Trump has no plan for what comes next. And they are not wrong: when Trump boasts that he can resolve wars in a single day, he merely exposes the limits of his attention span. But the real problem is not the shortness of Trump’s time horizon; it’s the narrowness of his threat perception.

Myanmar’s military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party won tightly controlled elections, consolidating legislative dominance under Senior General Min Aung Hlaing despite persistently low public support since the 2021 coup. While China pragmatically backs the junta to secure strategic interests such as rare earth supplies and infrastructure access, a potential rapprochement with the United States under Donald Trump could complicate Beijing’s influence.

Will it be sovereign development or a return to the “backyard” viewpoint? The Western Hemisphere’s future will not be secured by returning to the logic of exclusive spheres of influence but by embracing a genuinely plural rules-based order.

After decades of development and growth, Vietnam seems poised to enter a new chapter of dynamic economic growth, but at a time when the U.S. is teetering on losing global standing, how will Vietnam’s future play out?

The resumption of diplomatic dialogue between the Philippines and China in Cebu on January 29, ahead of the ASEAN-China Senior Officials Meeting on the Code of Conduct negotiations, is a welcome development. Avoiding conflict and preventing the deterioration of bilateral relations are imperative for the Philippines and China. Cooperation and productive ties can persist amid differences. The practice of other South China Sea coastal states is illustrative. Several points are worth considering.

For Singapore, the China-U.S. relationship is much more than a bilateral concern. It has profound implications for the sense of security, strategic expectations and assessments of the future by all medium-size states.

South Korea has recently proven atypically successful in straddling regional tensions involving China, but Beijing’s strained relations with Washington and its allies will sorely test Seoul’s pragmatic diplomacy in 2026.

As the Philippines assume the ASEAN chairmanship in 2026, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. is seeking to de-escalate tensions with China while deepening defense cooperation with the United States and other partners amid rising frictions in the South China Sea. The strategy reflects Manila’s effort to bolster deterrence without undermining ASEAN consensus or provoking broader regional instability.

The most important question stemming from America’s intervention in Venezuela is not whether it violated international law and norms, but what it reveals about the future of the liberal international order. Contrary to what some commentators say, that order is not collapsing, since its core pillars remain in place and the alternatives to them are still weak. But sustaining it will now involve more frequent discretionary US actions, and it will become increasingly unclear where the thresholds for future interventions lie.

The U.S. kidnapping of President Maduro represents one of the worst violations of international law by a major power in decades. It also reflects the role of Venezuela as a battleground of U.S. and Chinese interests.