Asia
When serious, careful US management of China–Taiwan policies … isn’t
It’s a weird crisis, if it can be called that. Foreign reactions, and even those in Taiwan, to China’s unprecedented military drills in recent days have been a collective yawn. It…
ICC pushes probe on the Philippines’ drug war
In a June resolution, the International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan asked to resume an investigation into former president Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs, which was…
Sri Lanka after the revolution: what happened, what next?
Recent weeks have seen extraordinary events in Colombo when a virtual economic shut down of the country led to a “middle class” revolution that forced the resignation and flight…
Development finance in Asia: a memoir
Book review: Takehiko Nakao, The Rise of Asia: Perspectives and Beyond. Memoir of the President of the Asian Development Bank 2013–2020 (Asian Development Bank, 2022)
In April…
Koreas: The hidden risk of the “kill chain”
In a move to prove that the age of appeasing North Korea is over, South Korea’s newly-inaugurated president Yoon Suk-yeol has quickly moved to revive a “Kill Chain” strategy…
Does ASEAN really need an official “second language”?
The idea of an “official language” for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been a contentious subject over the years. Recently, the issue has resurfaced.
In…
Will Pelosi’s trip trigger the next Taiwan crisis?
Speculation continues to mount that Nancy Pelosi will visit Taiwan during her trip to Asia this week. The schedule of the US Speaker of the House of Representatives, who arrived…
Killing the al-Qaeda chief leaves endless questions
Killing of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri in a US drone attack inside Taliban-ruled Afghanistan at the weekend has been billed as a major win by the United States…
ASEAN governments need to act on Myanmar
On my first trip to Myanmar for Human Rights Watch in 2012, I met the activist and writer Kyaw Min Yu (known as Ko Jimmy), who had recently been released from prison. It was a…
Unpacking China’s Global Development Initiative
Overshadowed somewhat by the ongoing attention on China’s development efforts in the Pacific, last month China’s President Xi Jinping hosted a virtual High-Level Dialogue on…