SEPTEMBER 6 — The movement of the USS George Washington from Japan toward the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln deserves Asean’s attention for reasons extending beyond naval strategy.

Its redeployment potentially creates a temporary gap in American carrier presence in the Western Pacific. Such gaps are not unprecedented and should not be exaggerated. 

Yet the episode demonstrates a fundamental reality of international politics: even the world’s foremost military power cannot deploy unlimited resources everywhere simultaneously.

When the Middle East demands greater American attention, resources available elsewhere can be affected.

For Southeast Asia, the lesson is straightforward. External powers have global priorities. Asean’s priority is Southeast Asia.

This is why the region must think about security more comprehensively. Geopolitics remains important. Geo-economics has become equally important. But there is now a third dimension Asean can no longer regard as merely technological: artificial intelligence sovereignty.

The strategic competition of the twenty-first century will not be determined by aircraft carriers, missiles and military bases alone.

Power increasingly resides in semiconductors, data centres, cloud infrastructure, undersea cables, electricity grids, critical minerals, algorithms and access to advanced computing.

Indeed, Asean’s own Digital Masterplan 2030 recognises that countries and companies able to develop, govern and deploy AI effectively will acquire important advantages in innovation, productivity and influence.

The strategic map of Asia is therefore changing.

Traditional geopolitics asks where military forces are positioned and who controls important maritime passages. 

AI geopolitics asks where advanced chips are produced, who controls cloud infrastructure, where data are stored and who possesses the computing and electricity required to operate increasingly powerful AI systems.

Asean cannot remain merely a spectator to this transformation.

Nor should Southeast Asia become simply a market of hundreds of millions of consumers purchasing AI technologies developed and controlled elsewhere.

This is where AI sovereignty becomes important.

AI sovereignty does not mean technological autarky. Indonesia does not need to reproduce the entire American or Chinese technology ecosystem. 

Neither does Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand or the Philippines.

It means retaining sufficient control over critical data, infrastructure, talent, regulations and computing capabilities to preserve national and regional agency.

Asean has always prospered through openness.

Japanese investment, American technology, European markets, South Korean manufacturing and Chinese supply chains have all contributed to Southeast Asia’s transformation.

The same principle should guide Asean into the AI age: grow with all, but become dependent on none.

Indonesia has an especially important role.

As Asean’s largest economy and most populous member, Indonesia possesses the domestic scale to influence Southeast Asia’s digital trajectory. But Indonesia does not need to do everything itself.

Asean countries possess complementary capabilities.

Singapore has advanced financial, research and digital infrastructure. Malaysia has an established semiconductor ecosystem and a rapidly expanding data-centre industry. 

Vietnam possesses electronics manufacturing capabilities and a growing technology workforce. Thailand brings substantial industrial depth, while the Philippines has a large English-speaking workforce and extensive experience in business-process services.

Asean should connect these capabilities rather than allow them to develop as separate national islands.

This requires a regional approach to AI sovereignty.

Asean does not need one industrial policy for 11 highly diverse member states. It needs interoperability, trusted cross-border data arrangements, cybersecurity cooperation, AI education and research, sufficient computing capacity and the ability to move technology and talent across regional ecosystems.

Universities must be part of this architecture.

So must SMEs.

The greatest economic impact of AI may not ultimately be determined by which Asean country develops the most sophisticated frontier model.

It will depend on whether millions of Southeast Asian businesses can use AI to improve productivity.

Imagine Indonesian, Malaysian, Vietnamese, Thai and Filipino SMEs routinely using AI to manage inventories, improve logistics, translate languages, conduct research, detect fraud and reach international customers.

That would turn AI from an elite technological project into an Asean productivity revolution.

But AI sovereignty has another dimension that Asean cannot ignore: energy.

AI requires enormous quantities of electricity. The Asean Centre for Energy has already warned that AI-driven data-centre expansion could place significant pressure on national electricity systems and local grids.

This makes the Asean Power Grid increasingly relevant to the region’s digital future. Asean has moved from discussing regional electricity integration toward the practical requirements for multilateral power trading.

The relationship is increasingly clear.

Energy security supports digital sovereignty. Digital sovereignty supports AI sovereignty. AI sovereignty strengthens economic resilience. And economic resilience gives Asean greater geopolitical autonomy.

This is why the region should stop treating foreign policy, defence, economics, technology and energy as separate strategic silos.

A semiconductor can simultaneously be a commercial product, technological asset and geopolitical instrument.

A data centre can be private infrastructure, a massive electricity consumer and part of national strategic architecture.

An AI model can improve productivity while simultaneously creating new dependencies.

Asean therefore needs a broader conception of security.

The movement of an American aircraft carrier illustrates the point. The United States will remain an important Indo-Pacific power. China will remain Asean’s largest geographical neighbour and one of its most important economic partners.

Asean should not define its technological future by choosing between them.

Instead, Southeast Asia should cooperate with American, Chinese, Japanese, South Korean, European, Indian and Gulf partners.

Diversification has always been one of Asean’s strongest forms of strategic insurance.

But beneath these partnerships must exist an irreducible layer of Asean capability: scientists, engineers, universities, computing infrastructure, cybersecurity expertise, regulatory competence and businesses capable of developing their own applications.

Otherwise Asean risks entering the AI age economically connected to everyone while technologically dependent on everyone.

Aircraft carriers can move. Capital can move. Supply chains can move. Export controls can change. Technology restrictions can tighten.

Asean cannot control these decisions.

What Southeast Asia can control is the resilience it builds within the region.

Geopolitics matters. Geo-economics matters.

But Indonesia and its Asean partners must now recognise AI sovereignty as an equally important pillar of strategic autonomy.

In the twenty-first century, sovereignty will not be protected by ships and soldiers alone.

It will also depend on who possesses the knowledge, energy, infrastructure and computing power to shape the future.

* Phar Kim Beng, PhD is the Professor of Asean Studies at International Islamic University of Malaysia and Director of Institute of International and Asean Studies (IINTAS).

** This is the personal opinion of the writers or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.