As the American century fades, the Asian renaissance begins. Kishore Mahbubani sat down with our CEO Steven Okun for a fireside chat at the US-ASEAN Business Council's Strategic Business Forum. ASEAN isn't westernizing it's modernizing, on its own terms, shaped for centuries by deep cultural ties to the two giants on its borders, India and China. An image for how the region moves is like a crab: sideways, sometimes backwards, sometimes forwards - never in a straight line, bu

Forget the usual swing voters. The “precariat” is the new voting base shaping the midterms. They're those living with chronic insecurity - unstable work, unpredictable income and few of the safety nets once taken for granted. As part of Steven Okun’s Geopolitical Series at The Nanson, we explored what could shape the midterms and US-China relations, in discussion with Deborah Elms, Damien Ma and Sonal Varma. This insecurity cuts across the US political and economic landscape.

At the The American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore (AmCham Singapore)'s Regional Economic Conference, our CEO Steven Okun and Manager Noemie Viterale led Workshop 3: The Imperative for Business to Adapt to Changing Geopolitics. The session covered how public affairs is changing for U.S.-headquartered companies and those doing business with the U.S., where new opportunities are emerging, and why companies need to play the long game. A recurring thread throughout: resilience

APAC Advisors is proud to have supported the third annual "Women as the Opportunity" training, delivered by the Global Private Capital Association (GPCA) in partnership with Investing in Women and FMO - Dutch entrepreneurial development bank. Steven Okun, Senior Advisor to GPCA, and Noemie Viterale, Program Manager for GPCA's partnership with Investing in Women, helped lead the day's programming for more than 50 investors and fund managers from across Southeast Asia. The trai

This year BritCham launched a new Geopolitics Committee, meeting every few months and reaching out when major events take a turn that impacts our members. Steven Okun shared his thoughts on current US developments, and H.E Nikesh Mehta brought the UK perspectives, and dug into economic diplomacy and shifting world orders.

Deprioritization of Indian Ocean; All-In at First Island Chain That's Derek Grossman described the US' foreign policy from a South Asia perspective following his four-nation tour of the Indian Ocean Region at the latest in the APAC Advisors (Singapore) geopolitical series. Start with the premise that the "Indo-Pacific" was never more than an organizing concept for the US to counter China that held from Obama through Trump 1.0 through Biden. The US’ new mechanism is to push al

Steven Okun sat down to interview Matthew Campbell on his new book.

Asia is simultaneously racing to decarbonise and navigating some of the most volatile geopolitics in decades. The ongoing Gulf conflict has exposed the vulnerabilities of the region’s energy system, by way of import dependence, limited fuel diversification and concentrated supply routes, compounding existing pressures from grid bottlenecks, regulatory uncertainty and weak investment signals. Yet, the transition remains underway. Renewable energy capacity continues to expand,

Current U.S. politics, foreign policy, and global trade dynamics intersect to create complex international ramifications. Steven Okun, founder and CEO of APAC Advisors Singapore, discussed how the fragmentation of global trade is reshaping Asia’s economic and geopolitical landscape.

Journalism in a World of Obsolete Geopolitical Assumptions There is no "trade truce" between the US and China. That was Steve Okun's opening line — and he meant every word of it. Steve returned for his annual session with the National Press Foundation's International Trade Reporting Fellowship, speaking to 25 journalists from across Asia on geopolitics and trade. The message was clear: too many stories are still being told through a lens that no longer reflects reality. Three

Steven jolined panelists Horace Zona, Katie Wu, Obinna Isiadinso and Rodrigo Abreu for a great discussion at the Global Private Capital Conference’s “Scaling Data Centers Globally”. Chips, NIMBY, Power, Skilled Labor, Sovereign AI: Challenges and Opportunities for Scaling Data Centers Globally. In Q1 2026 alone, in Global Private Capital Association's markets, capital invested in data centers reached USD5.2b, above most full-year totals. But there are many emerging issues whi

Tariffs are relative. Will Trump lower China’s tariffs to close to those planned for SE Asia when either the Agreements on Reciprocal Trade or the Section 301 tariffs kick-in, either by July 24 when 122 expires? The lower the differential on tariffs between China and countries like Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, the more likely companies which left China will return, reversing in part China +1.

Steve, Taimur Baig, Ethan Wu, and Deborah Elms return for the latest in the geopolitical series I host for The Nanson. While the US and China continue a period of no further escaltion in their trade war, Trump moves forward on tariffs for the rest of Asia. China has neither overplayed its hand nor shot itself in the foot, sitting stronger today more because of US actions than its own foresight, but still with all the challenegs the region has with them. Forecasting the econom

WomenExecs on Boards (WEoB) is a global network dedicated to empowering and supporting each other to reach leadership positions in the C-suite and on corporate boards. All the women in our network share a common experience of having taken board governance training courses at Harvard Business School. We provide a community for networking, peer support, and education while advocating for gender equality, diverse leadership, and governance excellence. Boards Can’t Count on Gover

Sharon Simmons didn't come to the Oval Office to talk geopolitics. She came to talk tips. And when pressed on transgender rights, on whether she voted for Trump, she did something most communications professionals struggle to do under pressure: she stayed on message. "I'm here about no tax on tips." That story opened APAC Advisors CEO Steven Okun's fireside chat with the Asia-Pacific Association of Communication Directors (APACD) — a network of Corporate Affairs and Communica

For the first time, private capital investments in Chinese robotics companies nearly matched those in AI. That milestone framed a timely conversation at the FT Asia Wealth Summit, hosted by Professional Wealth Management (PWM) and Financial Times Live. APAC Advisors CEO Steven Okun joined a panel examining how investors are approaching the opportunity in "Physical AI" in China — the convergence of robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence that is rapidly reshaping the

As the conflict in Iran continues to evolve, so do its implications for global trade. APAC Advisors hosted the fourth in its War with Iran webinar series, bringing together three leading voices to assess where things stand — and what businesses should be preparing for. The tariff roadmap Barbara Weisel, Former Assistant USTR and Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, laid out the tariff landscape with precision. The key date to watch is July 24th, when the

At the KangaNews Debt Capital Market Summit 2026, Steven Okun delivered a keynote highlighting how a new geopolitical era is set to drive higher global energy costs. He emphasized that regardless of how or when the war with Iran ends, governments will increasingly prioritise energy security and resilience—an approach that will come with significant financial implications. Okun underscored that businesses and investors must recognise and respond to this “gray rhino” risk. In t

A Middle East war. A Beijing visit. A midterm election. Three things that have no business happening at the same time - and yet, here we are! Steven Okun was at the East Asian Institute, National University of Singapore yesterday working through all of it - Iran's ripple effects, where China fits into an increasingly crowded US foreign policy agenda, and the electoral pressures shaping every move Washington makes right now. The big question hanging over the room: is Trump'