7. It will be interesting to see if the US tries to re-enange (beyond random social media posting) now that China has taken a strong initiative on this matter and if Malaysia will remain engaged with the proposed AOT post-ASEAN chair. All this aside, I hope we will have a more peaceful 2026. 8/8

6. We have now passed the 72h mark of the ceasefire. It has been quiet other than a Thai soldier stepping on a Cambodian anti-personnel mine. Thailand chose to respond via an official MFA protest, which seems to suggest that the military will not respond with force. 7/n www.mfa.go.th/en/content/s...

5. The Mekong framework will be an interesting venue. US influence will be limited unlike in usual ASEAN settings without maritime SEA. China has a strong influence in Laos and an off-and-on, but currently good, relationship with Vietnam. Unsure if there are any new river-specific controversies. 6/n

4. China sees this not as a simple spat between neighbors, but an opportunity to rearrange relations on peninsula SEA. Cambodia and Thailand agree to work towards a détente that can allow for resumption of the Mekong Leaders' Meeting i.e. these three countries along with Laos and Vietnam. 5/n

3. China is willing to provide four things, though unclear in how tangible of a way: support for de-mining operations, ceasefire monitoring, humanitarian assistance, and a platform for bilateral rapprochement. Cynically, this could be seen as an end-around on the principle of ASEAN centrality. 4/n

2. The Kuala Lumpur Peace Accord is dead, long live the Anning Outcome! While the statement here alludes to the role of ASEAN and the Observer Team proposed in the KL deal, there is otherwise no direct mention to KL, presumably as that has Trump's fingerprints all over it. 3/n

1. What is the "Asian way" as referred to here? It would be way too loaded of an accusation to say that this sounds like a call for "Asia for the Asiatics," but I think the point here is pretty clear that China thinks it has legitimacy to be the broker of this agreement as a regional superpower. 2/n

I am not sure what leverage China holds over Thailand, but maybe that is not necessary—relations between the two are doing quite well with Chinese tourists slowly returning, bilateral cooperation on shutting down scammer centers, and a successful state visit to Beijing by King Vajiralongkorn.

Maybe I am being a bit cynical here, but I wonder if this is China dangling the proverbial carrot while still holding the stick to get the ceasefire to at least the 72hr mark. Politics aside, this humanitarian assistance will provide crucial relief for affected civilians. bsky.app/profile/noan...

Lack of US mention is interesting given this reported trilateral meeting between Thailand, Cambodia, and China to start tomorrow in Yunnan. Given the timing, perhaps this time it was China that brokered this ceasefire or at least brought the parties to the table. bsky.app/profile/noan...

For a TA assignment I was also told to teach students how to use the library search function. They might find it a bit condescending at first, but so many of them treat the search bar like Google (and now god forbid like ChatGPT), which does not lead to any useful/any at all results on the catalog.

A bit difficult when our library as policy has defaulted to ebooks for almost anything published since 2020, but still pretty good and why open stacks are so good for teaching and research. The “virtual stacks” on the catalog is just so unsatisfying.

If they are going to kill the university, the chancellor and the provost should at least have the decency or courage to say it publicly, not leave it to some AI-generated PR slop response to a cut conveniently quietly announced in the middle of winter break.

These area studies centers connected Carolina to the world. It is clear the people who run this university on the other hand want to make this campus as parochial as possible.

I don’t even think 4.8mil can buy you a single football anymore on that side of the university.

It is also without coincidence that probably the most frequently cited text about nationalism, Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities, was written by a Southeast Asianist who was by then mostly working out of Thailand after getting banned from Suharto's Indonesia.