SEAI Global Lecture 2026

The SEAI Global Lecture is an ANU Southeast Asia Institute (SEAI) initiative that explores and celebrates Southeast Asia as an influential site of knowledge production. The lecture features prominent scholars whose work on Southeast Asia has made wider disciplinary or interdisciplinary contributions.

On 12 May 2026, the Institute held the SEAI Global Lecture featuring Distinguished Professor Amitav Acharya, Professor at the School of International Service, American University, and UNESCO Chair in Transnational Challenges and Governance.

The first SEAI Global Lecture, titled ‘Bridging the local and the global: How can scholars of International Studies benefit from expertise on Southeast Asia and vice versa?’, invited audiences to reflect on Southeast Asia as a ‘regional world’ that both reflects and contributes to the making of the contemporary world order. Drawing on his path-breaking research, Professor Acharya discussed how scholarship on Southeast Asia can generate concepts and theories that travel beyond the region and contribute to the social sciences and humanities. The lecture also explored how his work on security communities, norm localisation, regional institutions and global governance, the conceptualisation of world order as ‘multiplex world’, and Global International Relations has been shaped by his long engagement with Southeast Asia.

The session was opened by ANU SEAI Director, Professor Evelyn Goh, with Associate Professor Keith Barney joining as discussant. In the lecture, Professor Acharya invited us to understand Southeast Asia as a microcosm of world politics and world order. He emphasised that ASEAN deserves greater recognition as a form of institutional regionalism grounded in a genuine sense of regional identity and the capacity to sustain order in the absence of a hegemon. The discussion also highlighted the importance of ASEAN common ground as an inclusive community and allowing the region to speak for itself.

The following day, ANU SEAI hosted the SEAI Masterclass with Professor Acharya, titled ‘Doing Southeast Asia and Global International Relations: What’s the difference?’ Moderated by Dr Nicholas Chan, the masterclass provided students and scholars with a focused opportunity to engage with Professor Acharya’s intellectual journey and his reflections on bridging area studies and International Relations theory.

Together, the lecture and masterclass reaffirmed ANU SEAI’s commitment to supporting research, teaching and outreach that foreground Southeast Asia’s contributions to wider debates in international relations studies, regionalism and world order.