BANGKOK – As we enter the New Year, ASEAN TODAY extends its warmest wishes to our readers for health, stability, and hope. We look forward to a year in which our world may move toward greater peace and understanding—one where wars, as well as military and religious conflicts, are resolved through dialogue rather than violence. Only in a more peaceful global environment can nations and societies fully concentrate on the challenges that truly define our shared future.

Among these challenges are climate change, rising ocean levels, water scarcity in some regions, and severe flooding in others. In many parts of the world, the survival of entire populations is already under threat—or will be in the very near future. These developments can, and likely will, trigger conflicts over increasingly scarce resources. These are the issues that demand growing attention in 2026 and beyond. We hope that political leaders and non-governmental organizations will rise to their responsibility and work decisively toward sustainable solutions, so that future conflicts over resources can be prevented.

The Staff of ASEAN TODAY