https://www.scmp.com/rss/507239/feed Elina Noor is a non-resident scholar in the Asia Programme at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she focuses on developments in Southeast Asia, particularly the impact and implications of technology in reshaping power dynamics, governance and nation-building in the region. She was previously a visiting fellow at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia. en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Elina Noor Elina Noor On March 1, after Israel and the United States initiated attacks against Iran, Amazon Web Services reported drone strikes against data centre facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The strikes caused structural damage to the company’s infrastructure, impairing cloud services for those countries. Iran warned that US tech companies with Israeli links, including Google, Microsoft, Palantir, Nvidia and Oracle, were on Tehran’s list of “legitimate targets” for countermeasures. Strikes on... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3347725/ai-infrastructure-front-line-lessons-asean-iran-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3347725/ai-infrastructure-front-line-lessons-asean-iran-war?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 28 Mar 2026 21:30:10 +0000 Elina Noor Elina Noor Just over a year ago, US President Donald Trump stood at the US Capitol to deliver his inaugural address for his second term in office. Much of what he said then seemed like characteristic hyperbole. The world had, after all, experienced his first four years in power and emerged on the other side, largely intact. Even when Trump urged the United States to “once again consider itself a growing nation […] that increases our wealth, expands our territory […] and carries our flag into new and... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3341373/trumps-exposure-flawed-global-order-wake-call-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3341373/trumps-exposure-flawed-global-order-wake-call-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 28 Jan 2026 01:30:12 +0000 Elina Noor Elina Noor The dust has yet to settle despite the conclusion of the 47th Asean Summit under Malaysia, which remains the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for the remainder of the year. There are two main takeaways from the Kuala Lumpur meetings. First, by most objective measures, Malaysia has successfully pulled off not only the summit but its year-long chairmanship, steering several initiatives long in the making past the finish line. One of the most consequential is the formal admission... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3334072/its-year-under-malaysia-asean-tried-set-systemic-reform-motion?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3334072/its-year-under-malaysia-asean-tried-set-systemic-reform-motion?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 26 Nov 2025 21:30:09 +0000 Elina Noor Elina Noor At Asean’s first ever artificial intelligence summit in Kuala Lumpur recently, YTL AI Labs, in partnership with the University of Malaya, launched a large language model (LLM) called ILMU – which translates from Malay into English as “knowledge” but is used in this instance by the developers as a Malay acronym. Billed as Malaysia’s first, fully sovereign AI model with data locally hosted, managed and governed, ILMU has been trained on local, contextualised data and outperforms global... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3323872/local-ai-models-will-live-and-die-quality-their-data-sets?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3323872/local-ai-models-will-live-and-die-quality-their-data-sets?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 01 Sep 2025 22:30:08 +0000 Elina Noor Elina Noor A day before the controversial military parade in Washington celebrating the US Army’s 250th anniversary (which, coincidentally, fell on President Donald Trump’s 79th birthday), a more discreet yet significant event took place. On June 13, the US Army swore four C-suite technologists into its reserve ranks with the launch of Detachment 201, its executive innovation corps. The newly commissioned lieutenant colonels are Shyam Sankar, Palantir Technologies’ chief technology officer; Andrew... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3316416/why-silicon-valley-signing-nationalism-puts-asia-edge?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3316416/why-silicon-valley-signing-nationalism-puts-asia-edge?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 02 Jul 2025 12:30:08 +0000 Elina Noor Elina Noor When Malaysia’s deputy minister of communications, Teo Nie Ching, announced the launch of the country’s “sovereign AI infrastructure” powered by Huawei Technologies’ advanced computing chips and the DeepSeek large language model, she inadvertently set off a geopolitical maelstrom. In the crosshairs of Teo’s announcement was the activation of Huawei’s Ascend chips on a national scale and the planned roll-out of 3,000 of those chips by next year to “form the backbone of Malaysia’s national AI... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3312531/malaysias-huawei-chip-storm-shows-sovereign-ai-fraught-pursuit?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3312531/malaysias-huawei-chip-storm-shows-sovereign-ai-fraught-pursuit?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 01 Jun 2025 12:30:08 +0000 Elina Noor Elina Noor Between US President Donald Trump’s April 2 volley of tariffs and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s three-country stop in Southeast Asia just two weeks later, most of the Asia-Pacific’s attention was captured by the implications of these contrasting developments. But what happens on the ground in smaller countries offers a more interesting composite of local dynamics that can defy reductive geopolitical narratives. The recent controversy in Malaysia involving the publication of the country’s flag... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3308971/malaysian-flag-gaffes-expose-how-ai-can-inflame-deep-social-divisions?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3308971/malaysian-flag-gaffes-expose-how-ai-can-inflame-deep-social-divisions?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 05 May 2025 21:30:08 +0000 When former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested in Manila and transferred to The Hague to stand trial at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of crimes against humanity, his successor Ferdinand Marcos Jnr explained the handover as compliance with the country’s commitments to Interpol. The international police organisation had indeed requested cooperation in executing the ICC’s arrest warrant. But it was notable that Manila premised its justification on the... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3304097/why-duterte-drama-should-inspire-malaysia-reconsider-joining-icc?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3304097/why-duterte-drama-should-inspire-malaysia-reconsider-joining-icc?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 30 Mar 2025 21:30:07 +0000 Within the first few minutes of United States Vice-President J.D. Vance’s address at the Paris AI Action Summit last month, he declared he was not there to talk about AI safety but about AI opportunity. What he meant, as he went on to make clear, was not only should safety considerations be subordinated to innovation but that the Trump administration would double down on US leadership across the entire artificial intelligence stack – from semiconductors and algorithms to computing power and... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3300849/southeast-asia-must-take-long-view-survive-us-china-ai-race?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3300849/southeast-asia-must-take-long-view-survive-us-china-ai-race?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Mar 2025 08:30:08 +0000 As Donald Trump settles back into the White House for a second term and the rest of the world readies itself for a reprisal of US threats and transactionalism, Southeast Asia has been put on notice where it stands with Washington. A day after he was sworn in on January 21, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to his counterparts in the Philippines and Indonesia – a promising indication that at least some countries in the region matter. Rubio’s first meeting, however, was with the foreign... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3296470/trump-tech-titans-geopolitical-traps-await-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3296470/trump-tech-titans-geopolitical-traps-await-southeast-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 30 Jan 2025 21:30:08 +0000 On October 11, Laos handed the baton of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) chairmanship to Malaysia during the closing ceremony of the 44th and 45th Asean Summits and Related Summits. Malaysia will officially assume the chair on January 1 next year with the theme “Inclusivity and Sustainability”. In 2015, when Malaysia last held the Asean chairmanship, the world was in the throes of violence. From Bamako to Beirut, Paris to the Sinai desert, communities mourned hostages taken,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3288712/how-malaysia-can-boost-asean-agency-and-centrality-2025-chair?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3288712/how-malaysia-can-boost-asean-agency-and-centrality-2025-chair?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 03 Dec 2024 04:00:12 +0000 On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump will once again be sworn into office as president of the United States, eight years after he stood on the steps of the US Capitol for his first inauguration. Southeast Asian leaders were quick to offer congratulatory messages as soon as it was clear Trump had won the election. But between now and his first day back in the Oval Office, there will be unequal parts trepidation, circumspection and optimism in the region about policy changes to expect from the... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3286339/pragmatic-southeast-asia-will-adapt-trumps-america-first-agenda?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3286339/pragmatic-southeast-asia-will-adapt-trumps-america-first-agenda?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 15 Nov 2024 21:30:08 +0000 While the coordinated pager and walkie-talkie explosions in Lebanon have now been overshadowed by the threat of a widespread conflict, the attacks reveal three disturbing trends with lingering implications for Southeast Asia. First, regardless of how the devices were rigged and detonated, it is clear that what goes on in the Levant does not stay in just the Levant. The trail of both types of communication devices implicates manufacturers across Asia and Europe. The alleged Taiwanese maker of the... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3280840/device-hijackings-explosion-risk-asias-electronics-industry?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3280840/device-hijackings-explosion-risk-asias-electronics-industry?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 09 Oct 2024 12:30:10 +0000 As world leaders once again converge on New York this month for the annual slate of United Nations General Assembly meetings, it will be hard to ignore the irony of the world’s largest multilateral gathering taking place against the backdrop of a multilateral order in crisis. It is not just because the Middle East is teetering on the brink of a region-wide conflict, or that humanitarian relief in Gaza is being held hostage by a few countries or that shifting dynamics in the Ukraine-Russia war... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3277481/southeast-asia-starting-work-fixing-broken-world-order?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/world-opinion/article/3277481/southeast-asia-starting-work-fixing-broken-world-order?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 08 Sep 2024 12:30:08 +0000 At the recently concluded Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) meetings in Laos, the region’s foreign ministers met their counterparts from 17 other Asia-Pacific states to discuss a range of strategic challenges. It was clear as they did so that Southeast Asia remains a Rorschach test – a projective experiment of what is possible for different, sometimes fiercely competing interests. For larger Asia-Pacific countries, Southeast Asia offers a toehold to project influence. Russia’s... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3272811/southeast-asia-must-factor-big-tech-firms-its-us-china-calculus?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3272811/southeast-asia-must-factor-big-tech-firms-its-us-china-calculus?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 04 Aug 2024 11:30:11 +0000 Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has found himself having to articulate his government’s relationship with China a great deal lately. Like his predecessors, he has had to do this frequently since taking power as geopolitical watchers scrutinise Putrajaya’s ties to Beijing with every high-level meeting, public announcement and policy decision. Chinese Premier Li Qiang’s official visit to Malaysia last month to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations animated the latest round of... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3268720/china-and-us-malaysia-can-walk-and-chew-gum-same-time?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3268720/china-and-us-malaysia-can-walk-and-chew-gum-same-time?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 03 Jul 2024 01:30:09 +0000 In April 2014, Malaysia and the United States formalised a comprehensive partnership to enhance bilateral relations. This commitment to do more together seemed only natural. After all, the two countries have enjoyed steady and solid political, economic, military and people-to-people ties dating back to the early years of Malaysia’s independence. This held true even during the diplomatic troughs of the late 1990s and early 2000s. This was a volatile period marked by the Asian financial crisis,... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3264891/10-years-us-malaysia-relations-need-adjust-changed-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3264891/10-years-us-malaysia-relations-need-adjust-changed-world?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 04 Jun 2024 21:30:11 +0000 If geopolitical trends were assessed the way economic projections are calculated on a quarterly basis, the global security landscape would perpetually curve upwards on the axes of time and complexity. In just the first quarter of 2024, we have experienced the reverberations of a war in Ukraine with no definitive end in the sight, the live streaming of a plausible genocide in Gaza that has galvanised sentiment around the world and flashpoints in Taiwan and the South China Sea that are as much... https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3260902/southeast-asia-cannot-be-bystander-amid-escalating-global-crises?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/opinion/asia-opinion/article/3260902/southeast-asia-cannot-be-bystander-amid-escalating-global-crises?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 02 May 2024 01:30:13 +0000 The UN General Assembly recently adopted a landmark resolution to promote “safe, secure and trustworthy” artificial intelligence systems for sustainable development. Introduced by the US and supported by more than 120 countries, the AI resolution is the first of its kind for the assembly – an acknowledgement of the extensive but unequal reach of AI and the frenetic efforts to leverage and regulate the technology. Despite the notions of safety, security and trustworthiness resonating differently... https://www.scmp.com/comment/asia-opinion/article/3256966/embracing-ai-southeast-asia-must-consider-sobering-climate-costs?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/asia-opinion/article/3256966/embracing-ai-southeast-asia-must-consider-sobering-climate-costs?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 02 Apr 2024 01:30:13 +0000 In a developing region like Southeast Asia, the promise of digital transformation, in general, and artificial intelligence (AI), in particular, is pitched as a trifecta of economic growth, administrative efficiency and social upliftment. This is clear in both political pronouncements and the national and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) policy documents issued in recent years. It is also evident in rising capital investment. Despite global headwinds, in 2023, companies in Southeast... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/world/article/3253437/southeast-asias-digital-future-should-be-more-replicas-past?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/world/article/3253437/southeast-asias-digital-future-should-be-more-replicas-past?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 01 Mar 2024 08:45:13 +0000 As clashes continue to flare up in the South China Sea between China and the Philippines, concern has primarily centred on the risks of escalation – and concomitantly, the prospects of de-escalation – at sea. The Asean foreign ministers’ statement that Indonesia pushed through in the final weekend of its 2023 chairmanship underscored, among other things, the importance of maintaining freedom of navigation in, and overflight above, the maritime sphere of Southeast Asia. This specific reference to... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3250057/asean-beijing-must-address-cyber-threats-south-china-sea-talks?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3250057/asean-beijing-must-address-cyber-threats-south-china-sea-talks?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 29 Jan 2024 21:30:23 +0000 It’s official: US President Joe Biden will head to the G20 Leaders’ Summit in India, and Vice-President Kamala Harris will attend the Asean Summit-related meetings in Indonesia next month. There, she will underscore America’s “enduring commitment to Southeast Asia and to Asean centrality”, according to a White House briefing by national security adviser Jake Sullivan. Sullivan rightly points out that there has been an “unprecedented expansion in US-Asean relations” since Biden took office,... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3232709/no-biden-no-problem-asean-just-has-forge-its-own-path?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3232709/no-biden-no-problem-asean-just-has-forge-its-own-path?utm_source=rss_feed Wed, 30 Aug 2023 17:00:11 +0000 The deteriorating state of China-US relations is often presented by both sides as a singular narrative – starkly accusatory of the other’s actions, unequivocally righteous of its own. As the two powers seek to outflank each other on a range of issues amid a global pandemic, neither one seems interested in accepting responsibility for its own decisions or being accountable to the rest of the interconnected world. Since the consequences of this rupture reverberate beyond China and the United... https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3101571/us-china-tensions-asean-should-actively-address-fallout-their-feud?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3101571/us-china-tensions-asean-should-actively-address-fallout-their-feud?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Sep 2020 17:00:14 +0000