In a world where the old rules of trade have dissolved and great powers negotiate as unified blocs, Southeast Asia's ten-nation alliance finds itself at a quiet crossroads — not threatened from without, but quietly fracturing from within. When Indonesia publicly courted Toyota away from Thailand in August 2026, it was not merely a diplomatic awkwardness but a symptom of a deeper confusion: whether ASEAN exists to serve its members collectively or to be raided by them individually. The bloc that once promised a common market now risks becoming a marketplace where neighbors outbid each other for