Asia
Glug, glug, glug: India’s interest in unsinkable aircraft carriers
Former Australian prime minister Paul Keating once recounted describing to an American admiral the sound a US aircraft carrier would make in a major fight: “Glug, glug, glug”…
Time to denounce China’s Muslim gulag
One of the worst human rights abuses in recent times is occurring in China’s far-western region of Xinjiang. The Chinese Communist Party has rounded up possibly one million…
It’s all up to Moon now
The Trump–Kim summit last week in Singapore was a nothingburger – not good or bad, just nothing new really at all.
After months of hype, including grossly inflated talk of CVID …
Ceasefire in Afghanistan: the first win for peace
For the first time, the Afghan government and the Taliban have agreed on a ceasefire in the 17 years–long conflict that has made Afghanistan one of the most violent places on the…
Should Shinzo Abe happen to meet Kim Jong-un
In recent weeks, Northeast Asia has enjoyed an unprecedented season of summitry. Spurred by a common desire to curb the North Korean nuclear threat, key leaders from the region…
China’s rising interests in Qatar
It has been a year since Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt severed diplomatic ties with Qatar. Saudi Arabia and the UAE led the boycott, instituting an…
Vietnam: reconciling the diaspora
In 2018, Vietnam and Australia marked the 45th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations by upgrading their ties to a strategic partnership.
On this occasion, however,…
Taking a stand for North Korean rocket engine tests
While many results from the recent Trump–Kim summit are yet to emerge, we can at least ponder one immediate and tangible outcome. North Korea has announced it is dismantling a…
Trump-Kim summit: China smiles
As analysts and pundits rake through the breadcrumbs dropped after the Trump–Kim summit in Singapore, one thing is for certain: the People’s Republic of China (hereafter “China”)…
Human rights missing in Trump–Kim summit
The 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry into North Korean human rights was a rallying cry for the international community to take immediate action to address the egregious nature…