This paper discusses the major Southeast Asian think tanks of foreign policy that focus on the study of security, strategy, military affairs and diplomacy. Countries in Southeast Asia, except Singapore, are still developing countries without much human resources. Therefore, most of their major think tanks are governmental ones, either directly subordinate to government bodies or backed by their government with capital and personnel. It is very difficult to have them classifi ed into the traditional Left, Center or Right for most of them have obscure ideologies. In general, however, they hold the same views as their government, at least on public statement (yet their views may differ from those of the government in private). In terms of research topics, the diplomacy of security is not the sole but predominant subject, and at the same time, there are also studies on economic and social issues.