The Front Row Podcast

Professor Selina Ho is Vice Dean (Research and Development), Dean’s Chair, and Associate Professor in International Affairs at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore. Her research focuses on Chinese politics and foreign policy, with a particular interest in how China wields power and influence through infrastructure and water disputes in Southeast Asia and South Asia.Her work sits at the intersection of comparative politics and international relations. Her book, Rivers of Iron: Railroads and Chinese Power in Southeast Asia, is widely regarded as a definitive text on the Belt and Road Initiative in the region.TIMESTAMPS00:00 — Trailer00:52 — Introduction01:21 — Why Southeast Asia Matters to Both Superpowers04:25 — Will Trump Turn His Back on the Region?09:41 — The Fear of US Abandonment14:17 — How Southeast Asia Actually Sees China18:37 — Chinese Influence vs. Chinese Dominance21:37 — Wolf Warrior Diplomacy in China29:11 — The Belt and Road33:47 — When China Owns Your Power Grid: The Laotian Lesson37:44 — China Wants Regional Dominance40:16 — How ASEAN Elites Actually Respond to Chinese Influence43:06 — What Regional Decision-Makers Really Think47:31 — ASEAN Centrality51:52 — Why ASEAN Is Strong on Trade and Weak on Security55:15 — Building an ASEAN Identity01:00:19 — What Singapore Should Do With Its 2027 ASEAN Chairmanship01:01:46 — Advice for a Fresh Graduate Entering the Working WorldThis is the 80th episode of The Front Row Podcast.📄 Research Paper“Elite Perceptions of a China-Led Regional Order in Southeast Asia”https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/18681034241294093#table2-18681034241294093📜 Full Transcriptshttps://www.ykeith.com/tag/podcast/Connect & FollowInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontrow.65/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-yap/Website: www.ykeith.comEmail: keith@frontrow65.co🎧 Listen & SubscribeSpotify: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/keith-yap8Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/front-row/id1771599400

Michael O'Hanlon is one of America's foremost defence policy scholars. He holds the Philip H. Knight Chair in Defence and Strategy and serves as Director of Research in the Foreign Policy programme at the Brookings Institution, where he specialises in US defence strategy, the use of military force, and American national security policy.O'Hanlon completed all his degrees at Princeton University — a bachelor's in physics, a master's, and a PhD in international affairs — and went on to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he taught physics in French. He later served as an analyst at the Congressional Budget Office and was a member of the Pentagon's Defence Policy Board.His newest book, timed to coincide with America's 250th anniversary, is To Dare Mighty Things: US Defence Strategy Since the Revolution, published by Yale Press in 2026. You can buy a copy of his book here - https://amzn.to/4bKPmaqHis previous works include The Art of War in an Age of Peace and Military History for the Modern Strategist, among more than a dozen books spanning NATO, nuclear arms, land warfare, and US-China relations.O'Hanlon has appeared on television or spoken on radio over 4,000 times since 9/11, and his writing has appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal, among many others.This is the 78th episode Of The Front Row PodcastTIMESTAMPS:00:00 — Introduction01:37 — Grand Strategy vs. Defence Strategy: What's the Difference?06:50 — George Washington's Guerrilla Instinct: How the Revolutionary War Shaped America11:45 — The Founding Fathers Were Not Minimalists15:10 — The War of 1812: Punching Up at the World's Number One Power18:50 — Was America Ever Really Isolationist?21:10 — The Uncomfortable Ethics of American Expansion30:15 — How World War II Made America a Superpower32:55 — Three Wars That Built a Nation34:30 — The Cold War Was Scarier Than We Remember37:45 — Vietnam: America's Worst War — and Why Lee Kuan Yew Still Defended It40:20 — The Cold War Was About More Than Containing Communism42:30 — The End of the Cold War: Triumph or Anxiety?46:05 — 9/11, Fear, and the Road Into Iraq49:30 — The Paradox of American Power: Winning the Grand Game While Losing the Wars51:20 — Nixon's Art of Losing Without Admitting It53:35 — Iraq: What Went Wrong and What Didn't55:15 — Trump Through a Historical Lens: A 19th-Century President in the 21st Century56:40 — If You Had 15 Minutes With Trump, What Would You Say?Full transcripts of episodes can be found here: https://www.ykeith.com/tag/podcast/Feel free to mingle in the comments below or head to...Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontrow.65/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-yap/Website: www.ykeith.comEmail: keith@frontrow65.coGet access to every episode by subscribing for free on Spotify: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/keith-yap8 or Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/front-row/id1771599400

George Yeo, former Singapore Cabinet Minister and diplomat turned business adviser and public intellectual. He discusses the collapse of global stability, the rise of a fragmented multipolar world, AI’s role in new networks, how civilizations perceive conflict differently, China’s priorities and reserves, US political shifts and the dollar’s future, and how small states should navigate great-power tensions.

Wang Gungwu, renowned historian of the Chinese diaspora and former vice-chancellor of the University of Hong Kong, shares memoir moments and big-picture history. He explores why borders shift, how civilizations learn from the past, China’s return to its imperial lessons, the Tang-Song paradox, and why Southeast Asia stayed relatively peaceful. Brief, reflective, and wide-ranging.

Ho Kwon Ping, Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings and veteran Singaporean entrepreneur, reflects on cultural intelligence and national character. He discusses a looming civilizational reset between Western and Chinese reference points. He explores how Singapore can balance global influence, diversify knowledge for AI and medicine, and cultivate hunger, humility and world-class leadership.

Mehran Gul, author and researcher who maps emerging tech ecosystems beyond Western hubs. He explores why tech is spreading globally. He outlines three lenses to map innovation. He compares hubs like Singapore, China, Switzerland and India. He discusses talent vs relationships, geopolitics of capital, and how different models adapt and scale.

Susan Sim, editor and historian behind The Albatross Files and biographer of E.W. Barker, guides listeners through declassified memos and oral histories about Singapore's fraught merger and separation from Malaysia. Short, vivid stories cover the last fraught weeks before separation. The conversation highlights the emotional weight in leaders' records and Barker's quiet role as drafter and mediator.

Janadas Devan, senior adviser at Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Development and former deputy in the PM’s Office who coordinated the Albatross Files. He walks through the fraught 1963–64 merger: why leaders thought union was necessary, how communal politics and the 1964 riots escalated tensions, the secret negotiations and Dr Goh’s pivotal role, and the emotional and political fallout that led to separation.

Shaun Rein, founder of the China Market Research Group, discusses the shifting landscape of global politics and economics. He explores how China's superior manufacturing ecosystem has reshaped global trade. Rein highlights the tension between elite-serving US policies and China’s more inclusive governance. He delves into the implications of US sanctions and the drive for self-reliance in industries like semiconductors. Rein provides insights on the potential for a US-China rapprochement and offers career advice for the next generation.

Thank you for checking out The Front Row Podcast and my interview with Professor Tommy Koh. Prof Koh is Singapore's Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a position he has held since 1990, and Professor of Law at the National University of Singapore. He is a veteran diplomat and negotiator recognised globally for his contributions to international law and diplomacy.Koh's distinguished career spans international law, diplomacy and education. He served as Singapore's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York (1968–71; 1974–84) and Ambassador to the United States (1984–90).His most notable international contribution was serving as President of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, where he successfully steered 119 countries to sign the convention in 1982—creating what he called "a constitution for the world's oceans." He was also a member and second chairman of the High-Level Task Force that drafted the ASEAN Charter, providing the institutional and legal framework for the organisation.Koh has represented Singapore in major legal disputes, including serving as chief negotiator in the reclamation works dispute with Malaysia over Tuas and Pulau Tekong (resolved in 2005), and as part of Singapore's legal team in the Pedra Branca cases before the International Court of Justice (2003 and 2017).At NUS, Koh was the founding Rector of Tembusu College and currently serves as Chairman of the International Advisory Board of the Asia Research Institute and Special Adviser to the Institute of Policy Studies.TIMESTAMPS:0:00 Trailer0:42 Introduction1:18 Living Through Decolonisation6:27 Becoming The Youngest UN Ambassador12:13 Why International Law Cannot Protect Small States17:21 Condemning America in 198319:04 Creating the UN Constitution for the Oceans28:20 ASEAN's Peace Miracle29:51 Why LKY Was America's Friend37:51 What Singapore Should Not Import from America41:35 The Downside of CEO Worship52:08 Understanding China56:17 China's Return To A Tang Dynasty Vision?1:02:42 How to Engage an Assertive China1:07:14 Insights From Five Generations of Singapore's PM1:18:07 Tommy Koh's Hopes for Singapore1:21:48 Tommy Koh's Advice For Young SingaporeansThis is the 70th episode Of The Front Row PodcastFull transcripts of episodes can be found here: https://www.ykeith.com/tag/podcast/Feel free to mingle in the comments below or head to...Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontrow.65/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-yap/Website: www.ykeith.comEmail: keith@frontrow65.coGet access to every episode by subscribing for free on Spotify: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/keith-yap8 or Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/front-row/id1771599400