Shangri-La Dialogue Reveals Asia’s Ambitions, Limits

Are the region’s states prepared to pay what autonomy costs?

By: Salman Rafi Sheikh

Singapore’s Shangri-La Hotel has hosted Asia’s premier security forum for more than two decades. This year, it hosted something rarer: a region confronting the gap between what it says it wants and what it is actually capable of building. The 2026 Shangri-La Dialogue made clear that the Indo-Pacific has developed, with growing conv…