Dhesegaan Bala Krishnan is a research scholar at the Asia-Europe Institute, University Malaya, Malaysia.
Developed countries have traditionally regarded Southeast Asia as a beneficiary of, not a contributor to, the international system because of the region's poor economic resilience and scarce material capabilities. Naturally, then, skeptics deem the region a lame duck in the global battle against COVID-19. The region is ready to prove them wrong.
