As oil prices surge, Southeast Asian governments reassess energy plans, citing Iran's ongoing conflict as a major factor.

For a few weeks after the bombs started falling on Iran, Southeast Asian governments told their people not to worry. Emergency funds would cushion the blow. Subsidies would hold. Prices would stabilise. A month on, with oil well above US$100 a barrel, long queues for fuel forming at petrol stations across the region and Thailand restarting coal plants it had mothballed years ago, the reassurances have worn thin. Against this backdrop, an old question has resurfaced with fresh urgency: why does a...