Where is the AEI-ASEM Summer School held?

The AEI-ASEM Summer School is held in Kuala Lumpur, MYS.

What is the eligibility level for participants?

The program is designed for college-level participants.

AEI-ASEM Summer School 2026

Name: AEI-ASEM Summer School 2026
Start: 2026-08-05 00:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-08-16 00:00:00+00:00
Location: Kuala Lumpur

Aug 5–16, 2026Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaIn-person

Happening nowRegistration open

The AEI-ASEM Summer School is an academic program designed for college-level participants, taking place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This program offers a structured curriculum over a period of days, fostering a deeper understanding of global dynamics. It is an opportunity for students to engage with complex international issues in a focused academic environment.

Committees & topics

Topics
Artificial Intelligence and Digital Diplomacy · AI Governance, Ethics, and Global Regulatory Frameworks · Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development (SDGs) · Environmental Sustainability and Clean Energy Technologies · Human Capital Development and Future Skills in the Digital Economy · AI, Labour Transformation, and Social Equity · Global Peace, Security, and Emerging Technologies · The Future of Democracy and Digital Governance

Why it matters

The AEI-ASEM Summer School provides a crucial platform for young scholars to delve into the intricacies of international relations and diplomacy. In an increasingly interconnected world, understanding the nuances of global interactions is paramount. This program, held in MYS, offers a unique perspective from a region that is a nexus of diverse cultures and economic interests.

Furthermore, the program's structure indicates a commitment to in-depth learning rather than superficial engagement. Participants are exposed to a rigorous academic environment, which is vital for developing critical thinking and analytical skills necessary for future leaders and policymakers. The focus on college-level participants ensures that the discussions and learning are tailored to a demographic poised to make significant contributions to global discourse.

By convening in Kuala Lumpur, MYS, the Summer School leverages the city's strategic location and its role as a bridge between various regions. This geographical context enriches the learning experience, offering participants a firsthand look at the dynamics of a rapidly developing part of the world. Such immersive experiences are invaluable for truly grasping the complexities of international affairs.

How to prepare

To maximize the benefits of the AEI-ASEM Summer School, participants should engage in preliminary research on the geopolitical landscape of Southeast Asia, particularly focusing on MYS's role in regional and international affairs. Understanding the historical and contemporary challenges and opportunities in this region will provide a valuable foundation for the program's discussions.

Participants should also familiarize themselves with concepts related to international diplomacy and cross-cultural communication. Reviewing lessons such as "Engagement Strategies" and "Gender Dynamics Across Cultures" can offer useful frameworks for understanding the various perspectives that will be encountered during the program. This preparation will enable more informed contributions to discussions and better engagement with the curriculum.

Consider exploring the concept of "Hidden Stakeholders" and undertaking a "Stakeholder Mapping Workshop" in advance. This will equip participants with tools to identify and analyze the diverse actors influencing international relations, enhancing their ability to conduct "Dynamic Analysis" of complex global issues. Such proactive learning will ensure a richer and more impactful experience at the Summer School.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Malaysia

Host nation, facilitating academic exchange on global issues.

Role in topic

As the host country, MYS provides the geographical and cultural context for the Summer School, offering a unique perspective on Asian diplomacy and international relations. Its position in Southeast Asia makes it a crucial player in regional stability and economic development, influencing the themes and discussions within the program.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Artificial Intelligence and Digital Diplomacy

Diplomacy has been progressively reshaped by digital tools since the 1990s, but the arrival of large language models and predictive analytics has accelerated a structural shift in how states conduct negotiation, signaling, and public communication. Foreign ministries in the United States, China, the United Kingdom, France, and Singapore have established dedicated tech-diplomacy units, while Denmark's appointment of the first 'Tech Ambassador' to Silicon Valley in 2017 set a precedent now replicated by more than two dozen states. AI tools are increasingly used for translation, sentiment analysis of foreign publics, treaty text drafting, and crisis simulation. The core dispute centers on whether AI in diplomacy enhances mutual understanding or amplifies asymmetries — between states with mature AI ecosystems and those without, and between governments and the private platforms that mediate digital discourse. Concerns about deepfakes in election interference (notably during the 2024 election cycles in the US, India, and the EU), AI-generated disinformation in conflict zones such as Ukraine and Gaza, and the use of generative models to draft consular and visa decisions have all sharpened the debate. Multilateral fora including the OECD, the G7 Hiroshima AI Process, and the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Advisory Body on AI have begun to articulate norms for the diplomatic use of AI, but no binding framework exists. The 2024 Global Digital Compact called for capacity-building so that smaller states are not excluded from AI-enabled diplomacy, an aspiration that remains largely unfunded.

Key players

AI Governance, Ethics, and Global Regulatory Frameworks

Global AI governance has moved from voluntary principles toward harder regulation over the past five years. UNESCO's 2021 Recommendation on the Ethics of AI, the OECD AI Principles (2019, updated 2024), and the Council of Europe's 2024 Framework Convention on AI — the first binding international AI treaty — established overlapping baselines. The European Union's AI Act, adopted in 2024 and phased in through 2026, introduced the world's first comprehensive risk-based regulatory regime, while the United States has pursued a more sectoral approach combining executive orders, NIST standards, and state-level laws. The core dispute is over regulatory philosophy and jurisdictional reach. The EU favors precautionary, rights-based rules with extraterritorial effect; the United States prioritizes innovation and national security, particularly export controls on advanced chips and model weights; China promotes state-led governance through its generative AI and algorithm registration rules, while advancing a Global AI Governance Initiative aimed at developing countries. Middle powers including Japan, Canada, Brazil, and the UAE are attempting to bridge these models, and the African Union adopted a Continental AI Strategy in 2024 to assert collective bargaining power. At the UN level, the 2024 Global Digital Compact and the Secretary-General's High-Level Advisory Body proposed an International Scientific Panel on AI and a Global Dialogue on AI Governance. The debate ahead concerns whether these structures should evolve into something resembling an IPCC or IAEA for AI, and how to address compute access, open-source model release, and liability for downstream harms.

Key players

Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development (SDGs)

With the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at its midpoint, the UN's 2023 SDG Progress Report found that only about 15% of targets are on track. AI has been positioned as a potential accelerator across health (SDG 3), education (SDG 4), agriculture and food security (SDG 2), and climate action (SDG 13), with documented gains in areas such as tuberculosis screening, crop-yield prediction, and weather forecasting. The ITU's AI for Good platform and the 2024 Global Digital Compact frame AI as a public-interest technology that must be made accessible to developing countries. The core tension lies in the uneven distribution of AI's benefits. Compute capacity, data infrastructure, and skilled talent are concentrated in a handful of states, while the energy and water demands of frontier model training raise concerns for SDGs 6, 7, and 13. Many low- and middle-income countries lack the data sovereignty frameworks, broadband penetration, and electricity reliability needed to deploy AI at scale, and risk becoming consumers rather than producers of AI systems. African and Latin American states have called for technology transfer, concessional financing, and capacity-building commitments comparable to those in climate finance. Current debates focus on operationalizing inclusive AI through Digital Public Infrastructure (as in India's DPI stack, now being exported via the 50-in-5 initiative), open datasets in local languages, and AI-readiness assessments led by UNESCO and the World Bank. The challenge is translating pilot projects into systemic SDG impact before 2030.

Key players

Environmental Sustainability and Clean Energy Technologies

The energy transition has accelerated dramatically since the 2015 Paris Agreement, with renewables accounting for roughly 30% of global electricity generation by 2024 and solar capacity additions outpacing all other sources. COP28 in Dubai produced the first explicit call to 'transition away from fossil fuels' and tripled-renewables, doubled-efficiency targets by 2030. Yet IEA and IPCC analyses continue to show that current national contributions place the world on a trajectory of roughly 2.5–2.9°C of warming, well above the 1.5°C Paris goal. The core disputes are over financing, technology access, and industrial policy. The 2022 US Inflation Reduction Act, the EU Green Deal Industrial Plan, and China's dominance in solar PV, batteries, and critical minerals processing have triggered overlapping subsidy races and trade frictions, including EU and US tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. Developing countries argue that the COP29 New Collective Quantified Goal of USD 300 billion per year by 2035 falls far short of their estimated USD 1.3 trillion in needs, while small island states press for loss-and-damage operationalization. Emerging technological questions concern green hydrogen, advanced nuclear (including SMRs), grid-scale storage, carbon capture, and the energy footprint of AI data centers, which the IEA projects could double by 2026. Governance debates increasingly center on supply-chain resilience for critical minerals and on ensuring that decarbonization does not entrench new dependencies.

Key players

Human Capital Development and Future Skills in the Digital Economy

The digital economy has restructured global labor markets at a pace that education systems have struggled to match. The World Bank's 2024 Human Capital Index and the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 both estimate that a substantial share of current core skills will be disrupted by 2030, with generative AI accelerating this turnover in white-collar work. UNESCO and the ILO have warned of widening 'digital skills gaps' both between and within countries, with women, older workers, and rural populations particularly exposed. The central policy debate concerns who pays for, designs, and certifies the reskilling required. The EU's Pact for Skills, Singapore's SkillsFuture, Korea's K-Digital Training, and India's Skill India Digital Hub illustrate divergent state-led models, while major employers — including Microsoft, Google, and Amazon — have launched parallel certification ecosystems that increasingly substitute for traditional credentials. The OECD's 2024 Skills Outlook highlighted that fewer than half of adults in member countries currently participate in any formal training. For lower-income countries, the issue intersects with brain drain, the offshoring of digital tasks, and the rise of platform work without social protection. Multilateral discussions at the G20, ASEM, and the UN's Summit of the Future have emphasized portable credentials, lifelong learning accounts, and mutual recognition of digital qualifications, but implementation remains fragmented.

Key players

Global Peace, Security, and Emerging Technologies

Emerging technologies — autonomous weapons, military AI, cyber capabilities, hypersonics, quantum, and dual-use biotechnology — have become central to international security since the mid-2010s. The wars in Ukraine and Gaza have served as laboratories for drone swarms, AI-enabled targeting systems, and electromagnetic warfare. The UN Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems has met under the CCW since 2017 without producing a binding instrument, while the 2023 REAIM Summit in The Hague and its 2024 Seoul follow-up have built a parallel multistakeholder track on responsible military AI. The core disputes involve thresholds for 'meaningful human control,' verification of AI-enabled systems, the militarization of outer space following ASAT tests by the US, Russia, China, and India, and the security of critical infrastructure against state-sponsored cyber operations. The UN Open-Ended Working Group on ICT security has codified a framework of 11 voluntary norms, but enforcement remains weak. Proliferation concerns extend to non-state actors, given the increasing accessibility of commercial drones and open-source AI models. Current diplomatic efforts include the proposed UN General Assembly resolution on LAWS (passed in 2023 and 2024), the political declaration on responsible military use of AI led by the United States, and ongoing discussions on PAROS (Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space). The challenge is reconciling fast-moving technology with slow-moving treaty law in a period of intensifying great-power competition.

Key players

The Future of Democracy and Digital Governance

Democracy faces a layered challenge from digital transformation. V-Dem and Freedom House have recorded nearly two decades of democratic backsliding, and 2024 — the largest election year in history, with more than 70 contests covering over half the world's population — brought heightened concerns about AI-generated disinformation, foreign interference, and platform-mediated polarization. At the same time, digital tools have expanded participation, from Taiwan's vTaiwan platform to Estonia's e-residency and Brazil's e-democracy portals. The core dispute concerns how to safeguard democratic deliberation without entrenching state or corporate control over speech. The EU's Digital Services Act, the UK's Online Safety Act, India's IT Rules, and Brazil's contested 'Fake News Bill' represent very different settlements between platform liability, free expression, and electoral integrity. Authoritarian models exemplified by China's Great Firewall and Russia's sovereign internet law offer an alternative trajectory of state-centric digital governance that has gained adherents across several regions. Multilateral debate has crystallized around the 2024 Global Digital Compact, the Summit for Democracy process, and UNESCO's Guidelines for the Governance of Digital Platforms. Key questions include the regulation of generative AI in elections, the role of independent fact-checking, transparency of recommender algorithms, protection of journalists and civic activists online, and the design of inclusive digital public infrastructure that strengthens rather than substitutes representative institutions.

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for AEI-ASEM Summer School 2026.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Bhagwant Mann Launches Punjab Campaign Summit

Arming an archipelago: Is time running out for Europe's oldest DMZ? | Euronews

Antarctica: Overview of Geopolitical and Environmental Issues

Foreign Minister: Bahrain’s membership in UNSC (2026 – 2027) affirms its diplomatic leadership and global role in promoting peace and sustainable development

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Multilateral Negotiation

Advanced Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Malaysia College August 2026

By committee

Frequently asked questions

AEI-ASEM Summer School 2026

Aug 5–16, 2026Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaIn-person

Happening nowRegistration open

Committees & topics

Topics
Artificial Intelligence and Digital Diplomacy · AI Governance, Ethics, and Global Regulatory Frameworks · Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development (SDGs) · Environmental Sustainability and Clean Energy Technologies · Human Capital Development and Future Skills in the Digital Economy · AI, Labour Transformation, and Social Equity · Global Peace, Security, and Emerging Technologies · The Future of Democracy and Digital Governance

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 1 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

Malaysia

Host nation, facilitating academic exchange on global issues.

Role in topic

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Artificial Intelligence and Digital Diplomacy

Key players

AI Governance, Ethics, and Global Regulatory Frameworks

Key players

Artificial Intelligence and Sustainable Development (SDGs)

Key players

Environmental Sustainability and Clean Energy Technologies

Key players

Human Capital Development and Future Skills in the Digital Economy

Key players

Global Peace, Security, and Emerging Technologies

Key players

The Future of Democracy and Digital Governance

Key players

Resources

News, lessons, and country profiles to prep for AEI-ASEM Summer School 2026.

Recent reporting to ground your prep

Bhagwant Mann Launches Punjab Campaign Summit

Arming an archipelago: Is time running out for Europe's oldest DMZ? | Euronews

Antarctica: Overview of Geopolitical and Environmental Issues

Foreign Minister: Bahrain’s membership in UNSC (2026 – 2027) affirms its diplomatic leadership and global role in promoting peace and sustainable development

Lessons

Bite-sized lessons to build the basics

Hidden Stakeholders

Engagement Strategies

Dynamic Analysis

Stakeholder Mapping Workshop

Courses

Guided courses that go deeper on the topic

Multilateral Negotiation

Advanced Negotiation

Policy Brief Writing

Conflict Resolution

The states in play, with the data that shapes their stance

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Country dossier

Malaysia College August 2026

By committee

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

Defence Services Asia & National Security Asia 2026 Exhibition

International Conference on Globalization, Poverty, and International Cooperation

18th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences (ICHISS 2026)

International Conference on Mediation Strategies in Cross-Border Conflicts (ICMSCBC-26)

International Conference on International Law and Global Governance (ICILGG-26)

The 9th International Conference on Law and Society (ICLAS IX)

Frequently asked questions

Committees & topics

Why it matters

How to prepare

Country perspectives

Topics & background

Resources

Related conferences

Defence Services Asia & National Security Asia 2026 Exhibition

International Conference on Globalization, Poverty, and International Cooperation

18th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences (ICHISS 2026)

International Conference on Mediation Strategies in Cross-Border Conflicts (ICMSCBC-26)

International Conference on International Law and Global Governance (ICILGG-26)

The 9th International Conference on Law and Society (ICLAS IX)

Frequently asked questions