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The subject of economic security has always been bandied about in academic discourse since the emergence of an interconnected world economy. With ASEAN states getting increasingly enmeshed in free trade agreements, and common market like arrangements, it is imperative to explore what economic security means for national governments today. The shocks of the 2017-20 Donald Trump presidency of the USA and the COVID-19 pandemic impart timely momentum for inquiring after economic security. If the USA currently embodies the idea of zero-sum economic logics as the way forward into the twenty first century, it becomes even more urgent that Asians re-examine the degrees of openness needed to sustain growth and prosperity. Contributors to this Special Section will not only examine government-to-government trade interactions, the prospects of Islamic Finance and gender inequalities will also be analysed in terms of how they can make or break conventional notions of economic security.

Rodrigo Duterte won the Philippines’ 2016 presidential elections thanks to a well-orchestrated campaign and his populist appeal among Filipinos. Soon after he assumed the presidency, he surprised and upset most of his domestic and western international audiences by pragmatically rejecting the pro-Western approach followed by the previous Aquino administration and adopting a China-friendly one. Adopting Critical Discourse Analysis, this research reveals President Duterte’s bicephalous leadership: populist in domestic policies, and pragmatic but unpopular in foreign relations. To qualitatively describe the dichotomy between the populist and pragmatic nature of Duterte’s leadership, this article surveys the Philippines’ mainstream media from 2016 to 2019. Furthermore, this analysis shows that Duterte is using a defensive neorealist approach in building Philippines-China relations and that Filipinos are willing to consider China as a constructive partner for their country.

Populism has been evolving across the globe. Knowledge of the ways and degree to which political actors in Asian democracy exploited anti-establishment views, secular nationalism and Islamism as ideational elements when they established populist political communication strategies for local elections has, however, been under-developed. Focusing on such issues, this work selects gubernatorial candidates who ran in Indonesia’s 2018 gubernatorial elections as cases, using extracts from materials they posted on their Facebook pages. The findings are as follows. Candidates did not merely advocate anti-establishment views, but also adopted secular nationalism and Islamism as ideational-populist elements for developing populist political communication strategies. Those who exploited anti-economic elites favoured establishing secular nationalist and Islamic-based populist political communication strategies inclusively. Those who propagated anti-economic, anti-political and anti-bureaucratic elites instead greatly preferred advancing an Islamic populist political communication strategy. However, through employing such efforts, only few succeeded in these elections.

The goal of this study is to examine factors determining Japanese citizens’ attitudes toward nuclear armament. Previous studies have suggested that Japanese citizens have been strongly opposed to the idea of nuclear armament. However, this study questions the robustness of the anti-nuclear stance among the Japanese population. More specifically, I contend that ethnocentric tendencies among Japanese citizens significantly boost their support for nuclear armament. The statistical analysis relying on the survey data in Japan verifies this hypothesis. Findings from this study are essential in understanding the current discourse surrounding nuclear armament in Japan. Dissecting the process through which Japanese citizens develop their attitudes toward nuclear weapons, this study significantly advances our understanding of Japan’s identity issues in the security arena.

Almost all observers believed that India’s 2019 general election would result in a hung parliament and a coalition government. Yet, the election returned Prime Minister Narendra of the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to a second five-year term in office. The BJP not only increased its parliamentary majority, it also won seats in states and regions beyond the Hindi heartland. Indeed, Modi is the first prime minister since Indira Gandhi in 1971 to be reelected with a larger majority. What explains Modi’s spectacular electoral victory, and what does his victory bode for India’s representative democratic political order? Will India turn towards illiberalism as Modi tries to turn India into a Hindu majoritarian state? The following pages argue that such pessimism is unwarranted since India’s democracy is far more resilient, with built-in mechanisms against potential strongmen.

Since the end of the Cold War, ASEAN has continuously increased its level of integration into the global economy to enhance regional economic prosperity and stability. Given the conceptual fluidity of economic security in international relations, however, ASEAN's firm commitment to promoting positive synergies between economic and security interests warrants further attention. In this vein, this article examines the evolving nature of ASEAN's economic security with a focus on regional economic initiatives, including trade agreements and the ASEAN Economic Community. The article suggests that ASEAN can maximize its potential for economic security when it increases the credibility of its commitment to regional economic cooperation and integration. To do so, ASEAN should more effectively address the issues of weak institutional capabilities and domestic political conflicts over regional economic governance. It should also proactively respond to unexpected challenges from external factors, such as US–China rivalry and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The character and state of a financial system are important contributing factors to the performance, stability and security of any economy, something which has been repeatedly demonstrated during times of financial crisis. While assessments of earlier financial crises tended to focus on shortcomings in the governance of financial sectors, not least when crises occurred in the developing world, many have noted issues with the moral character of the industry, and the attendant processes of securitisation and financialisation, in the wake of the transatlantic financial crisis of 2007–2008. Against these recent criticisms, Islamic finance was pitched as a more ethical, stable and secure alternative. Although the ideas that inform the development of Islamic finance might hold the promise of a more ethical alternative to conventional finance, the industry itself has not been immune to processes of financialisation and securitisation, which have arguably undermined the market's initial promise.

In this article, the functions of political appointees have been classified by an index on the relation between politics and bureaucracy. Based on that classification, the real states of four democracies, the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Japan, have been examined. From this study, the causation consisting of the politico-administrative relation (concretely, the insider-outsider factor and the line-staff factor), the independent value, and the political appointees' functions (advice, decision-making and interface between politicians and civil servants), the dependent value, has been confirmed. Through this examination from a comparative perspective, a proposal of generalization about the political appointees' functions has been presented.

Fluid transnational identities are an omnipresent reality in the contemporary world, but what happens when war becomes a reality or the threat of war is imminent in a State which contains fluid transnational identities? This article tries to explore these dynamics to determine if the threat from transnational identities is an actual threat during war or an act of an elite few, and what follows after the war, by comparing the experiences of Chinese Indians and Japanese Americans. The study heavily leans on securitization theory to explore the questions posed and elaborate on the situations when habeas corpuswas denied thereby incarceration and internment as a practice were justified. The relationship between the transnational population and the State under the Copenhagen School is also further elaborated on.