On 26 August, a wall of ice, rock and water tore through the Tibet-Nepal border and ran 72 kilometres down the Trishuli valley. It killed more than 1,400 people and damaged 12 hydropower plants, knocking out about a tenth of Nepal’s generating capacity. The country had spent a decade turning its glacier-fed rivers into an ... “A warning to the world”
This piece by Pushpanathan Sundram, CEO, PublicPolicyAsia Advisors and former Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN, looks at what the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution requires and what could change before ASEAN Leaders meet in Manila for their regular summit from 16 to 18 November 2026. At its centre is Indonesia’s consent to specific, advance help, so no one has to ask in public when the smoke is at its worst
Asia’s sovereign debt burden is not a background concern any longer. A volatile mix of the Iran war energy shock, a higher global rate environment and localised currency stress has drained fiscal headroom across the region just when the governments require more of it. This report examines the fallout, why this shock looks different from ... Asia’s sovereign debt burden
Asia is pouring hundreds of billions into chip fabs and data centres, but building them on a foundation that is quietly running dry. Around 70% of the world’s major aquifers are in long-term decline, and by 2050, a third of global GDP could be under high water stress. From Taiwan’s drought-exposed fabs to India’s competing ... Water, water, everywhere?
In the global rush to secure critical minerals supply and rare earth supply chains, ASEAN has entered the limelight as an alternative source, a new position that could position the region as a new geopolitical powerbroker, but at what cost? This paper by Samantha Cheh, senior editor at StoneBench, explores how these shifting dynamics could have a transformative impact on the region
Nepal’s dramatic fall in poverty defies conventional wisdom, driven less by growth or remittances than by hundreds of small, community-level interventions. This StoneBench paper, written in partnership with John Donaldson, associate professor of political science at Singapore Management University, explores the issue
Given the current macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop, what are the implications of the upgraded ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement? This StoneBench whitepaper, written in partnership with Priyanka Kishore, founder of Asia Decoded and Stephen Olson, visiting senior fellow at ISEAS, explores
An interview with Andrew Cainey, RUSI Senior Associate Fellow, International Security, and Co-founder of the UK National Committee on China
China's industrial policy has been very successful in producing innovation, but the economic value created by these “new” industries is still limited
We are witnessing a curious predicament—a shift from the globalisation of prosperity to the globalisation of challenges confronting the world