Report - Oceans of Opportunity: Southeast Asia’s Shared Maritime Challenges

With 9 out of 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries touching the sea, Southeast Asia is on the front lines of the world’s shared maritime challenges. Everything from climate change, plastic pollution, and fisheries management to legal frameworks and maritime domain awareness present transnational problems that the region must overcome, or face the collective consequences. With this in mind, the Center for Strategic & International Studies held a three-part virtual conference in June 2021 to address these challenges. Experts from the legal, political, and scientific communities discussed what Southeast Asia’s shared maritime challenges mean for the region and its people and what regional states and partner nations can do to meet those challenges.

Those discussions informed the findings of this report. Except where conference participants are cited directly, what follows are solely the opinions of the authors.

This report is by Danielle Fallin, Simon Tran Hudes, Amanda Ingram, and Gregory B. Poling.