Washington and Beijing are actively competing to bolster soft power via vaccine deliveries to Southeast Asia. Yet countries like Vietnam are still lacking jabs.

For a sense of the stakes involved at the upcoming COP26 climate conference, look no further than Ho Chi Minh City’s fight against rising seawaters.

Hanoi is using its time atop the UN institutional structure to draw attention to two colossal non-traditional security threats to international society.

The Kabul-Saigon comparison touches a nerve in US-Vietnam reconciliation, and reinforces doubts over the level of US commitment to Southeast Asia.

With mounting disputes around the world, the treaty is arguably more important than ever for maritime security.

Vietnam is harnessing a grassroots desire for green energy to enact a slow but steady transition away from coal-based electricity generation.

A President Biden would be unlikely to hit the ‘reset’ button in US-China relations, which suggests progress in Washington’s partnership with Hanoi.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not made the world safer; old threats have not gone away and new ones remain on the horizon, especially in the South China Sea. Yet key tenets of the Pacific Deterrence Initiative remain bogged down in Congress.

Is Washington’s newfound assertiveness on the South China Sea dispute a matter of long-term statecraft, or short-term electioneering?

This time Hanoi’s preferred weapons were science-based policy and epidemic planning.