The writer is the Director of the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House and a former FT correspondent in Hong Kong, Jakarta and Hanoi
“Political risk” has traditionally been the lens through which western governments and businesses analyse the outside world. This framing has spawned a lucrative global industry of its own, one that can obscure as much as it clarifies.
Since returning to a UK in political disarray two months ago, following 14 years in Asia, I’ve been struck by the fact that many Asian governments and companies are now looking back at us through this same lens. In conversations with senior Asian officials, they keep raising one overarching concern: can we count on the UK, Europe and the US to stay engaged when they are facing so many problems at home?