Southeast Asia’s Nuclear Blind Spot: Latent Pathways and Explicit Pressures

AI Summary

Southeast Asia faces growing nuclear risk despite its formal Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone status, due to the diffusion of nuclear-adjacent capabilities across maritime strategy, civilian nuclear programs, and conventional military competition. The article argues that prevailing risk assessments focus too narrowly on Northeast Asian flashpoints, overlooking vulnerabilities in Southeast Asia. Shifts in East Asian nuclear dynamics are creating latent proliferation pathways in the region.

Why is Southeast Asia becoming more vulnerable to nuclear risk even as it remains formally non-nuclear?Southeast Asia’s Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone has long been treated as a stabilizing firewall in an otherwise volatile region. Yet despite the continued legal compliance and strong anti-nuclear norms, the region is increasingly exposed to nuclear danger.Across East Asia, nuclear dynamics are shifting in ways that extend beyond overt weaponization. The most consequential changes stem from the diffusion of nuclear-adjacent capabilities across maritime strategy, civilian nuclear development, and conventional military competition. Prevailing assessments have largely only focused on flashpoints in Northeast Asia — particularly the Korean The post Southeast Asia’s Nuclear Blind Spot: Latent Pathways and Explicit Pressures appeared first on War on the Rocks.