The East Asian region generally and Southeast Asia in particular have long been associated with authoritarian rule. It is argued that the intensification of a range of environmental problems means that authoritarian rule is likely to become even more commonplace there in the future. Countries with limited state capacity will struggle to deal with the consequences of population expansion, economic development and the environmental degradation with which they are associated. A resurgence of authoritarian rule is made even more likely by China's ‘successful’ developmental example and the extent of the region's existing environmental problems. The dispiriting reality may be that authoritarian regimes – unattractive as they may be – may even prove more capable of responding to the complex political and environmental pressures in the region than some of its democracies.