LSE Southeast Asia

LSE Southeast Asia The Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre is an inter-disciplinary, regionally-focused academic centre within the Institute of Global Affairs at LSE.

The Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre (SEAC) is an inter-disciplinary, regionally-focused academic centre within the Institute of Global Affairs at LSE. Building on the School's deep historical connections with Southeast Asia, the Centre seeks to promote the best academic and policy research on the region, deepen research ties with Southeast Asia, and improve the student experience at LSE. SEAC is LSE’s gateway to understanding Southeast Asia.

🌏 Reimagining Climate Resilient Development: Radical Hope and Climate Action in the Philippines 🇵🇭Last week, SEAC welcom...
06/10/2026

🌏 Reimagining Climate Resilient Development: Radical Hope and Climate Action in the Philippines 🇵🇭

Last week, SEAC welcomed Dr Angela Minas and Dr Justin See for a discussion on what can learn from the knowledge, values and capacities of communities facing climate hazards directly.

Drawing on case studies from the , the seminar explored how grassroots movements generate and sustain “radical hope”, alongside community-based approaches to climate resilience grounded in people’s lived realities and aspirations for a ‘good life’.

The discussion challenged predominantly top-down and technocratic approaches to , considering how community knowledge and locally defined priorities can inform more inclusive and sustainable pathways to climate-resilient development.

A huge thank you to Dr Angela Minas and Dr Justin See for sharing their research and insights, and to Dr Sharmila Parmanand for chairing the discussion. Thank you also to everyone who joined us in person and online!

🚨HAPPENING NEXT MONDAY 🙌“ASEAN’s Indispensable Paradox: One Region, Multiple Fault Lines”Prof. Thitinan Pongsudhirak wil...
05/10/2026

🚨HAPPENING NEXT MONDAY 🙌

“ASEAN’s Indispensable Paradox: One Region, Multiple Fault Lines”

Prof. Thitinan Pongsudhirak will examine the widening gap between centrality and its
capacity at a time when intensifying great-power rivalry, geoeconomic fragmentation and the
erosion of the international order make regional cohesion more necessary.

Focusing on three key fault lines — , Thai-Cambodian border tensions and the
— the seminar explores the limits of consensus and the challenges of maintaining
regional agency without strategic unity. While ASEAN is unlikely to become a cohesive geopolitical
actor, Southeast Asian states and societies need ASEAN more, not less, as a buffer, bridge and
broker among the great powers.

🗓 Monday 12 October
⏰ 5pm - 6.15pm
📍 LSE Cheng Kin Ku Building - Room LG.03, Thai Theatre (CKK.LG.03)

🔗 Click the link in the bio to register to attend!

Call for Papers! 📝 Dr Maaike Matelski and collegues are looking for participants in their upcoming EuroSEAS conference p...
02/04/2026

Call for Papers! 📝
Dr Maaike Matelski and collegues are looking for participants in their upcoming EuroSEAS conference panel ‘Comparative identities and repertoires of contention among youth movements mobilizing amidst rising authoritarianism in South(East) Asia’.

They are looking for additional cases (e.g. Thailand, Myanmar) in order to make it comparative. They explicitly welcome (junior) scholars from the region, including South and East Asia (Bangladesh, Nepal, Hong Kong) as well as female presenters to submit their abstracts.

Please get in touch with any questions.

Deadline is 10 April.

For more information, please visit the conference pages: https://www.euroseas.org/papers/

🚨 NEW BLOG POST ALERT 🙌“Myanmar online reactions to the abduction of President Maduro from Venezuela” 🇲🇲🇻🇪In this blog p...
20/03/2026

🚨 NEW BLOG POST ALERT 🙌
“Myanmar online reactions to the abduction of President Maduro from Venezuela” 🇲🇲🇻🇪

In this blog post, Maaike Matelski, Eva van Roekel and Htet Hlaing Win describe the strong reactions which the removal of Venezuelan President by the United States elicited from online audiences in , who predominantly called for a similar in their country.

About the authors:
Maaike Matelski is an alumna of the MSc Human Rights program at the LSE and currently works as Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Eva van Roekel is an associate professor at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Htet Hlaing Win is a Myanmar researcher, columnist and student at the NMBU - Norwegian University of Life Sciences and junior researcher in the Ethnographic Impact for Social Justice project.

Interested? 🧐
🔗 Click the link in the bio to read the full piece!

Blog Myanmar Venezuela

🎉 CONGRATULATIONS 🥳Dr. Qingfei Yin, Associate Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and P...
20/03/2026

🎉 CONGRATULATIONS 🥳

Dr. Qingfei Yin, Associate Professor of International History at the London School of Economics and Political Science, has been awarded one of the 2025/26 SEAC Research Fund awards for her project ‘From Singapore to Oslo: Chinese Seamen and the Global Cold War.’ 👏

Want to learn more about her research? Click the link below! 🤩
🔗 https://lnkd.in/eYUF9vUq

🚨HAPPENING NEXT WEEK 🙌 “Death by a Thousand Cuts: Digital Repression and Pro-Democracy Movements in Thailand (soft launc...
18/03/2026

🚨HAPPENING NEXT WEEK 🙌
“Death by a Thousand Cuts: Digital Repression and Pro-Democracy Movements in Thailand (soft launch)” 🇹🇭

How does in the age of technologies undermine pro-democracy movements in ? In this talk, Dr. Janjira Sombatpoonsiri presents insights from her forthcoming book, Death by a Thousand Cuts: Digital Repression and Democracy in Thailand, which offers one of the most systematic, ecosystem-based analyses of digital repression targeting the youth-led protests of 2020–2021.

🗓️ Wednesday 25 March
⏰ 12pm-1.15pm
📍 LSE Cheng Kin Ku Building - Room 2.18 (CKK.2.18)

🔗 Click the link in the bio to register to attend in-person or online!

🚨 NEW BLOG POST ALERT 🙌“The Resilience Paradox: Why Indonesia Pays More After Disasters Than Before” 🇮🇩Tropical Cyclone ...
16/03/2026

🚨 NEW BLOG POST ALERT 🙌
“The Resilience Paradox: Why Indonesia Pays More After Disasters Than Before” 🇮🇩

Tropical Cyclone Senyar in Indonesia illustrates how underfunded climate resilience does not eliminate costs but shifts them onto communities after disasters strike. Focusing on Indonesia’s adaptation finance architecture, Nela Navida and Anisa Indah Pratiwi examine whether prevention is funded ex-ante, how resources are distributed across levels of government, and why private finance rarely supports community resilience. They argue that a response-heavy system creates predictable fiscal losses and poverty traps, and call for prevention-centred, accountable financing that prices disaster risk upstream rather than downstream.

About the authors:
Nela Navida is an economist at the International Growth Centre, focusing on Indonesia-related projects. She holds a Master of Public Administration in Economic Policy from the The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Anisa Indah Pratiwi is a Consultant at Just Transition Finance Lab, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change & the Environment focusing on emerging markets. She completed a Master of Public Policy at the University College London.

Interested? 🧐
🔗 Click the link in the bio to read the full piece!

🚨HAPPENING THIS WEDNESDAY 🙌 “(In)formality in a ‘Singapore-like Cebu’: paradoxes and contestations in world-class city-m...
16/03/2026

🚨HAPPENING THIS WEDNESDAY 🙌
“(In)formality in a ‘Singapore-like Cebu’: paradoxes and contestations in world-class city-making”

In this presentation, Dr. Jordana Ramalho explores the politics and practices shaping contemporary urban (re)development and world-class city-making in the Philippines. 🇵🇭

🗓️ Wednesday 18 March
⏰ 12pm-1.15pm
📍 LSE The Marshall Building - Room 2.06 (MAR 2.06)

🔗 Click the link in the bio to register to attend in-person or online!

🚨 NEW BLOG POST ALERT 🙌“Malaysia’s Borneo Question: Adaptation or Separation?” 🇲🇾A recent remark questioning whether w...
04/03/2026

🚨 NEW BLOG POST ALERT 🙌
“Malaysia’s Borneo Question: Adaptation or Separation?” 🇲🇾

A recent remark questioning whether was “meant to be” has reignited debate about secession in the States of and . In this article, Dr. Arnold Puyok argues that such rhetoric reflects bargaining and renegotiation within the federation rather than genuine ethnic mobilisation and separatism in the classic sense. By examining the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63) demands, constitutional changes, and comparative federal experience, he shows that Malaysia’s survival as a federation lies in continuous renegotiation of the federal bargain.

Dr. Arnold Puyok is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), and an Associate Senior Fellow at the ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute (ISEAS), Singapore. He is also a Senior Lecturer in Politics and Government Studies at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS).

Interested? 🧐
🔗 Click the link in the bio to read the full piece!

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