Southeast Asia Institute 2024 Student Essay Prize Winner Announced

The 2024 Southeast Asia Institute Student Essay Prize recognises the best essay written in response to one of the Institute’s 2023 flagship activities: either the published essays from the Regional Geopolitical Update or the interview recordings from the Southeast Asianists Limited Series. The competition was open to current undergraduate, Honours, or Masters students from any discipline at ANU.

The Prize aims to:
(a) promote the value of studying Southeast Asia to a new generation of scholars, and
(b) recognise the contributions of leading scholars from ANU and the region to advancing the study of Southeast Asia through innovative analysis and thorough empirical research.

The winner of this year’s prize is Kevin Thow, a student at the Australian National University. His article, "Prosperity, Security, or Autonomy? Examining Strategic Equilibrium through Kuik’s ‘Impossible Trinity’," was selected for its excellence. The essay is coherent, engaging, and exceptionally well-written and presented. It demonstrates a clear conceptual and analytical focus on Kuik’s Impossible Trinity, skilfully crafting nested questions about strategic choices, ASEAN centrality, and strategic equilibrium. Kevin weaves together insights from the Update conference and subsequent publications, effectively combining review, application, and reflection. His essay also extends the discussion beyond Southeast Asia to consider Australia’s strategic choices, offering a comprehensive and thought-provoking analysis.