Asia
Belt and Road: China’s biggest brand
Most public discussion of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) tends to paint it as a coherent strategy of the Chinese Communist Party. One school argues that this strategy is…
Why is India building the world’s tallest statue?
A statue to honour Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, the Indian king crowned in 1674 and founder of the Maratha Empire, was first suggested in 2004. The driver then was a …
Indonesia: running mates spark controversy
The confirmation by President Joko (Jokowi) Widodo’s of conservative Islamic cleric Ma’ruf Amin as running mate for the April 2019 presidential contest evoked disappointment among…
India: the north-south disparity
In India, a recently-released report ranking the states by their governance levels has once again highlighted the great disparities between north and south.
The Public…
Huawei in Australia: the 5G fear
The Australian government has officially blocked Chinese telecommunications firms, most notably Huawei, from providing equipment to Australia’s new 5G mobile phone networks,…
The dark side of the Asian Games
While some may argue that sport and politics should never mix, many governments have perfected the art of the sport–politics cocktail. It has a name: sports diplomacy.
…
Air traffic control for North Korea’s missiles
Verification is a cornerstone of disarmament. For the ongoing peace initiatives with North Korea, verification is even more critical.
Access to the country is notoriously…
Decoding the Mahathir Doctrine
Since returning to power after his stunning election victory in May 2018, the 93–year–old Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has made a series of comments reflective of…
Moon deepens civilian control in South Korea
South Korean President Moon Jae-in has initiated a major overhaul of the Defense Security Command, a military intelligence unit, in the wake of revelations…
Two cheers for the new Caspian convention
Demarcation of the Caspian Sea has been one of the longest lasting casualties of the disintegration of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The Soviet collapse invalidated…