What are the big changes that demand a strategy shift?
Let’s take a step back and look beyond the current focus on trade wars. Events since the beginning of this year have helped to crystallise several troubling trends.
Every day seems to bring something new from the Trump administration and ever more bewildering market moves. This roller coaster ride will continue, so making predictions of the near-term outlook is a fool’s errand. Far better instead to focus on what is abundantly evident: We are in a new world, and that world is a really challenging one, so our region will have to adjust to it.
Ideally, the region should respond collectively as Asean: In a world where smaller nations are more at the mercy of powerful nations, strength in numbers should help. Alas, Asean’s weaknesses mean that this is not to be. Individual countries in the region will, therefore, have to make do as best as they can.
