Gregory Poling

Remembering Jerome A. Cohen Jerome Alan Cohen (July 1, 1930 – September 22, 2025) was a renowned American lawyer who was one of the foremost foreign scholars of Chinese law. After studying law at Yale, Cohen embarked on a career...

In case you missed it last week:

We gathered a few friends and colleagues to write about the extraordinary life of Jerome A. Cohen (1930-2025), renowned lawyer and scholar of Chinese law.

The Dilemma of Shan State for Myanmar’s Revolution If there is any hope that the current civil war will lead to the reestablishment of a unified Myanmar, creative solutions will have to be found to resolve the conflicting claims in Shan State.

"If there is any hope that the current civil war will lead to the reestablishment of a unified Myanmar, creative solutions will have to be found to resolve the conflicting claims in Shan State," writes CSIS's Michael Martin.

Read the full commentary: www.csis.org/analysis/dil...

Starving children screaming for food as US aid cuts unleash devastation and death across Myanmar U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeatedly said “no one has died" because of his government’s decision to gut its foreign aid program.

Horrific reporting from the AP on the Myanmar families watching their kids starve to death from Trump and Musk’s aid cuts apnews.com/article/myan...

"A clear pattern is emerging in Southeast Asian responses to U.S. economic pressure, with most states seeking to mitigate both the short- and long-term risks of partnering with the United States," notes @gregpoling.bsky.social.

Read more from @seasia.csis.org: www.csis.org/analysis/sou...

What a graph

Remember, social media posts aren’t trade agreements.

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

worth pointing out, again, that a 20% tariff on Vietnamese imports alone (our sixth-largest trading partner!) would have been considered the worst trade war in modern American history pre-Trump. Instead it is now treated as a "deal". How far we've fallen.

Scarborough Shoal a growing flashpoint between China and Philippines, think tank says Scarborough Shoal has reemerged as the focal point of tensions between Manila and Beijing in the South China Sea, according to a report released Monday by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.

"Increased patrolling east of the shoal (..) suggests that China is using the nine-dash line rather than the territorial sea or another maritime zone from Scarborough as its imagined jurisdictional boundary” www.stripes.com/theaters/asi...

Fifteenth Annual South China Sea Conference | CSIS Events The CSIS Southeast Asia Program and Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative are pleased to present the Fifteenth Annual South China Sea Conference.

Tune in at 10am ET for the 15th(!!) @csis.org South China Sea Conference www.csis.org/events/fifte...

Logo is back up at the US Institute of Peace where it belongs — small but important court victory against DOGE’s illegal actions.

A Tale of Two Reams: Questions Remain at Cambodia’s Growing Naval Base | Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative After the official opening of Cambodian-Chinese joint facilities at Ream Naval Base in early April, the base quickly hosted visits from both Japan and Vietnam. But closer examination of those visits, ...

Closer examination of those visits suggests that China maintains exclusive access to some facilities, including the base’s largest pier. And recent photos of progress at a nearby air defense site only raise more questions about the true extent of Beijing’s military presence in the area.

RFA announces mass layoffs, shutdown of major language services Uyghur, Tibetan, Burmese will halt content production, programming on May 9

RFA services going dark as USAGM ignores a court order to disburse its Congressionally appropriated funding. www.rfa.org/english/abou...

The Archive is troubled to learn that President Trump yesterday fired all nine members of the State Department's Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, a statutory body that has operated without presidential interference for over 20 years. history.state.gov/about/hac/in...

www.straitstimes.com/world/united...

Trump tariffs, corporations cower During the Biden administration, corporate executives regularly expressed their displeasure with policies they opposed.

1. We contacted the 100 largest American companies and asked a simple question:

Do you support the tariffs announced by President Trump on April 2?

These are tariffs that have already destroyed trillions of shareholder value

NOT ONE COMPANY WOULD ANSWER THE QUESTION

Thailand, India legitimize Min Aung Hlaing with these engagements at BIMSTEC. His junta controls a third of Myanmar; this isn't pragmatic engagement, it's picking the losing side in a civil war.

Trump ousts members of National Security Council staff The NSC shake-up followed a White House visit by Laura Loomer, a far-right activist who urged Trump to purge staff with hawkish foreign policy views.

Decades of national security expertise wiped away in Washington yesterday at the urging of a far-right conspiracist who was once banned from Uber for anti-Muslim rants and claimed 9/11 was an 'inside job.' wapo.st/3R3zRAu

Pretty sure @wilsoncenter.org is mostly privately funded. This is absurd.

Welcome to CSIS, @kristigovella.bsky.social!

Read our full announcement about Dr. Govella’s appointment as CSIS Senior Adviser and Japan Chair below👇

Trump’s USAID cuts cripple American response to Myanmar earthquake Three days after the quake, there are no U.S. teams on the ground in Myanmar, a stark illustration of how Trump has upended America’s role in disaster response.

We're seeing in real time the terrible consequences of Musk & Trump's dismantling of USAID.

A devastating earthquake has killed thousands — and many more will die without vital U.S. aid.

The AID officials in charge had just gotten their termination letters. America in retreat.

DOGE Is Trying to Gift Itself a $500 Million Building, Court Filings Show The documents reveal a DOGE affiliate is attempting to transfer the headquarters of an independent think tank, the United States Institute of Peace, to the government at no cost.

Here's how it works:

1. DOGE fires everybody at USIP.
2. A DOGE guy from GSA gets installed USIP's acting president.
3. That guy agrees to transfer USIP's $500 million headquarters back to GSA—for free.

www.wired.com/story/doge-t...

Scaling Up: Vietnam’s Islands (and Harbors) Continue to Grow | Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative Vietnam has considerably expanded its Spratly Island outposts over the last ten months, completing a record year of island building in 2024 and moving on to dredge in new areas even as some features…

"Vietnam has considerably expanded its Spratly Island outposts over the last ten months, completing a record year of island building in 2024 and moving on to dredge in new areas."

Read more from the CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative:

Scaling Up: Vietnam’s Islands (and Harbors) Continue to Grow | Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative Vietnam has considerably expanded its Spratly Island outposts over the last ten months, completing a record year of island building in 2024 and moving on to dredge in new areas even as some features a...

Vietnam has now dredged 3,319 acres of coral reef and created 2,236 acres of new land in the Spratlys. Since 2021 it has built 8 new harbors and an 8,000-ft airstrip. Latest from AMTI: amti.csis.org/scaling-up-v...

What a tragedy. If this and the dismantling of other elements of US soft power like VOA, USIP, and USAID stand, the US will have done more damage to its influence in SEA in the last 6 months than China has in 6 years.

www.scmp.com/news/china/d...

Consensus from the first panel of the day on the self-harm US is committing by dismantling USAID, VOA and RFA. Kudos Prashanth Parameswaran, Lynn Kuok, and Graeme Smith

Crossroads of Competition: China in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands March 20, 2025

I'll be testifying before the US-China Commission in 10 minutes on China's influence in SEA and the Pacific alongside Cleo Paskal and Jason Tower. Watch live or check it out later at www.uscc.gov/hearings/cro...

After breaking into the US Institute of Peace (USIP) Monday, DOGE members immediately got to work taking down signs to erase the independent agency.

Photos taken yesterday shared directly with me:

"The Trump administration’s recent attack on Columbia University...[presents] the greatest threat to American universities since the Red Scare of the 1950s. Every American should be concerned." Bravo Princeton.

What is the U.S. Institute of Peace and why is Trump trying to shut it down? Founded during the Cold War to project American soft power and foreign policy expertise, the federally funded nonprofit think tank is now in the White House's crosshairs.

USIP has officially sued DOGE and other US government officials. They accuse DOGE folks of "plundering" the privately-owned office so officials could try to get access to USIP digital systems. A reminder that USIP is NOT a federal agency.
www.npr.org/2025/03/18/g...