This article provides a high-level review of the geopolitical status quo of nuclear fusion energy and outlines a vision for the future against the backdrop of Industry 5.0 and Society 5.0. In 2020, the year of the 75th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, ITER, the world’s largest fusion experiment, began its machine assembly, and next year, the DEMO (fusion power) stage of ITER planning is formally due to begin. With several countries now engaged in the design of DEMO-phase machines, we stress that a “burning plasma” self-sustaining fusion reaction event will be a critical juncture similar in status to the Trinity Test. In response, urging the need for US geopolitical engagement, we call for a “Global Commission for Urgent Action on Fusion Energy,” to be backed by the International Atomic Energy Agency and International Energy Agency (IEA), along the lines of the existing IEA “Global Commission for Urgent Action on Energy Efficiency.” We see the Commission serving a similar, this time international, role to the 1946 “Acheson-Lilienthal” report for fission and involving a global External Independent Review of the state-of-the art of fusion energy technologies. We suggest major “soft power” co-chairs from the Global West and North and from the Global South, thereby providing a geopolitical pivot which can unlock tens of billions of dollars in funding for multiple technology pathways, create a global regime to safeguard Intellectual Property, accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to a “Future Fusion Economy,” and prevent the geopolitical polarization of fusion energy.

After decades of military rule, internal conflict, and international isolation, Myanmar has embarked on a course of institution building. In light of Myanmar's low rating on the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators (World Bank Group), the nation faces an enormous challenge in developing public institutions that meet its needs and expectations. This challenge includes development of institutional capacity that will allow Myanmar to participate in international economic affairs. A step in this direction involves the creation of a securities exchange market mechanism. The current study considers the establishment of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar (SECM) to support securities regulation. It applies a novel organization level of analysis strategy that considers SECM as a 'pocket of effectiveness' (POE) in the context of a low-performing public institutional setting in terms of the good governance criteria of responsiveness, accountability, and transparency (RAT). While the study finds evidence of progress in building Myanmar's securities regulation, it also finds limits in RAT development that challenges the SECM's potential designation as a 'POE'. Based on feedback from proximate stakeholders in the daily work of the Aust J Publ Admin. 2020;79:225-241. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/aupa © 2019 Institute of Public Administration Australia 225 226 SOE ET AL. SECM, recommendations are offered for revised policies and practices in order to resolve them. K E Y W O R D S good governance, institution building, Myanmar, pocket of effectiveness, securities regulation

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This article reviews the issue of compulsory English in the Asia-Pacific region and examines the English component of a single-site exploratory study of multilingualism in a disadvantaged ethnic minority (DEM) community of Northeast Thailand. The concept of ethnolinguistic vitality was used as a framework for an analysis of community language experience, attitudes, and ability, and the study presents a picture of perceptions and usage of English, that is, the end results of the English as a foreign language (EFL) paradigm. The study found very low levels of self-reported English ability and little experience or positive opinion of English generally in the community, but increased self-reported ability and experience in the younger generation. Satisfactory levels of English literacy were self-reported in the younger generation, but this literacy did not appear to be used for much outside academia. Although this may call into question the compulsory English paradigm, a desire was expressed for continued access to English in schools. The study presents factors that may improve the quality of English language teaching in such DEM settings in light of the increased competition in the workforce that regionalism will bring.