The Hotel and the Steppe | Shangri-La, Ulaanbaatar and two ideas of order
[Asia Unfiltered 2026 #9] Arnaud Leveau, PhD, president of Asia Centre, publishes a new opinion piece, “The Hotel and the Steppe”.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Two dialogues, one week apart. The 23rd IISS Shangri-La Dialogue (Singapore, 29-31 May) and the 11th Ulaanbaatar Security Dialogue (4-5 June) address the same Asia. They do not address the same question. Singapore asks how the existing order holds under pressure. Ulaanbaatar asks what fills the space when it no longer does. Pete Hegseth told forty-four defence ministers that the region needed fewer summits and more submarines. Vietnam’s President To Lam told the same audience that the region needed rules, not blocs. Neither was speaking only for themselves. For Europe and its partners, the distance between these two events is a measure of how much has already shifted.
SUMMARY:
- Singapore, late May: the weight of convention
- Ulaanbaatar, early June: the work of the middle
- What the gap reveals
- Where this leaves Europe
- The hotel and the steppe



