ASEAN Is No Longer Just a Talk Shop

The bloc is beginning to have some agency—as long as you don’t mention China.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the ASEAN summit in Malaysia November 24, 2025, 4:00 AM Comment icon View Comments ( )

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is often dismissed as little more than a talk shop—long on meetings and statements but short on concrete action. As I have previously argued in Foreign Policy , the bloc has generally suffered from policy paralysis since its inception in 1967, mainly because of disunity among members over collective security actions to address challenges across Southeast Asia. This assessment, however, needs an update: In recent years, the 11-member group has

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