The Trans-Pacific Sustainability Dialogue, a joint initiative by the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and the Ban Ki-moon Foundation For a Better Future, convened for the second annual meeting in Seoul, South Korea, to generate new research and policy collaborations to advance energy security, the seventh of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

This report focuses on 10 Southeast Asian economies and how the distribution of monetary capital to each country is influenced by the degree to which it has adopted liberal democratic institutions and systems. It argues they need a new political economy that prioritizes financial inclusion, investment attraction, marginal productivity, trade expansion, political stability, and talented leaders who are able to facilitate the achievement of these goals.

APARC and Korea Program Director Gi-Wook Shin joins Gita Wirjawan, a visiting scholar at the Center and host of the “Endgame” video podcast, to share his work on the ways in which countries in Asia and elsewhere can address brain drain, discuss the influence of soft power on South Korea's evolution, and consider the threats posed by demographic and democratic crises to the country’s future.