Vietnam and the Asia Power Index
Vietnam and the Asia Power Index
How does it compare to other middle powers?
Good morning! Welcome to the latest edition of the Vietnam Weekly exclusively for paying subscribers, written by Ho Chi Minh City-based reporter Mike Tatarski. The newsletter is entirely supported by readers like you.
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Today’s newsletter continues an intermittent series about reports that are either entirely about Vietnam or about a broader topic that includes Vietnam. Previous entries include looks at the 2023 PAPI, EuroCham’s Q2 Business Confidence Index, the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute’s sixth ‘State of Southeast Asia,’ and Dezan Shira & Associates’ first Emerging Asia Manufacturing Index.
On to the news.
Every year since 2018 the Lowy Institute has compiled the Asia Power Index, which ranks 27 countries and territories on a scale of 100 “in terms of their capacity to shape their external environment.”
It covers a vast geographic scope from Pakistan in the west to Russia in the north and Australia, New Zealand, and the United States on the edges of the Pacific Ocean. The just-released 2024 edition includes Timor-Leste for the first time.
According to the index’s website, it “evaluates international power in Asia through 131 indicators across eight thematic measures: military capability and defence networks, economic capability and relationships, diplomatic and cultural influence, as well as resilience and future resources.”
From a Southeast Asian perspective, Vietnam is among this region's more powerful countries - but how does it stack up on some of these measures when you add two superpowers and several very strong middle powers to the equation?