Welcome to Third Institute
This is From the Network, Third Institute's weekly briefing — analysis, reporting, and regional intelligence from contributors across seven regions, written from inside the places they cover.
Digests through the week, the briefing notes, and the longer analytical pieces — all gathered here, every Wednesday.
Weekly Briefing
Southeast Asia
Fault Lines: Border Tensions, Political Legitimacy, and Natural Disaster Test ASEAN Unity
Border disputes, a contested presidential recognition, and a major earthquake are straining ASEAN unity even as the bloc's cohesion holds under Philippine leadership.
NEW IN ANALYSIS
The Sahelian Drone Proliferation: How Low-Cost Aerial Tech Is Reshaping Conflict in the Sahel
By Selamawit Getachew Amare
Across the Network
OPPORTUNITIES
Applications remain open for both Network Contributors and Analysis Editors. We are actively building across all seven regions — if you have regional expertise and a perspective worth sharing, we want to hear from you.
We are recruiting a Social Media Intern. This is a voluntary entry-level role for an undergraduate with an interest in international relations and politics. No prior experience needed.
Applications are reviewed on a first come first serve basis.
EDITORS NOTE
Welcome back to From the Network. Thank you for your engagement.
This week, the Third Institute team has been covering a range of issues across multiple spaces. Most notably, the diversity within the foreign policy space of South Asia was analytically explored. In the piece "Shared Culture, Divergent Statecraft," this dynamic is looked at through a contrast of the foreign policy approaches of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, showing how these differences are not a product of cultural makeup, where fundamental similarities can be drawn, but of institutions and elite worldviews, whose unique aspects derive from them.
Zooming in on Sub-Saharan Africa, one piece looks at the effect of drone technology on how conflicts are fought in the region. Referred to as "Low-Cost Aerial Tech," it looks at the consequential role drones are playing in the Sahel belt, Sub-Saharan Africa's most volatile region, animated by increased militarisation, state fractures and heavy external involvement compounding both.
Alongside our in-depth pieces, we looked at the first BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors' meeting, conducted in India, and the prospects for the New Development Bank and the host's critical role in it, which may not be limited to the BRICS countries in consequence but may also translate to the South Asia region, where India remains an economic powerhouse.
The Mecca agreement in the Middle East, making headlines across the week, is examined for what its impact may be on the region's security. Plus, in line with our focus on AI's role in foreign policy, we zoomed in on Vietnam to look at developments in AI governance there.
We certainly hope these contributions aid your understanding of the topics shaping the international system this week. Happy reading!
Mahder, Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Editor
Thank you for reading,
Foreign policy beyond the first take.