Dr. Amy Searight is a leading U.S. expert on Southeast Asia and U.S. policy in the Indo-Pacific region. Dr. Searight served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia from 2014 to 2016, before which she served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, USAID, and on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff. Today, Amy is a senior associate for Asia at CSIS. On this episode, Amy offered a preview of the historic U.S.-ASEAN Special Summit, which U.S. President Joe Biden will host in Washington on May 12-13. In addition to expectations for the summit, we discussed the challenges facing ASEAN, its members’ views on the U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy and economic framework, China’s relations with the bloc, the Philippines election, and more.
