Malaysia’s Anwar Again Says Oil and Gas Exploration Will Continue
Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has repeated that the state energy firm Petronas will continue to conduct oil and gas exploration activities in Malaysia’s portion of the South China Sea,...
View ArticleWhy China’s Rock Music Scene Isn’t Bothered by a Troublesome Textbook
“That’s just crazy. Crazier than you can imagine,”said Yang Haisong, one of China’s most revered indie rockers. He was reacting to recent news about a university textbook degrading the internet, pop...
View ArticleIs It Too Late for China’s Israel Policy?
On October 8, those closely monitoring China’s foreign policy in the Middle East over the last year heard a statement that might well have bewildered them. Asked about the conflict in Gaza that had...
View ArticleVietnam Sentences Businesswoman to Life in Prison in Mega-Fraud Trial
Businesswoman Truong My Lan was sentenced to life in prison yesterday in relation to a multi-billion-dollar fraud for which she already faces the death penalty, Vietnamese media reported. In a hearing,...
View ArticleNew Leadership Creates Fresh Momentum For EU-Indonesia FTA Talks
After nearly a decade of negotiations, the proposed EU-Indonesia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) remains elusive. The 19th roundtable was held in Bogor, Indonesia, from 1-5 July 2024, and offered little...
View ArticleGPS Jamming in Myanmar
Myanmar is the epicenter of GPS jamming in Asia. A map from Flightradar24, the aircraft tracking website, shows a cluster of red hexagons blanketing the country’s southern region. The pixelated dots...
View ArticleMaldivian President’s India Visit: From ‘India Out’ to ‘India in’?
In the world of small island nations, political slogans can make great waves — but they can also drown in the undercurrent of economic necessity and regional power plays. This is the dilemma that...
View ArticleAfghan Migrants Face Deepening Despair as Iran Intensifies Deportations
In September, Iranian authorities unveiled a controversial plan to deport 2 million undocumented Afghan migrants over a six-month period. The announcement, following the expulsion of 750,000...
View ArticleThe Thai Air Force Chose a New Fighter. The More Interesting Question Is What...
On August 28, the Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) announced the Swedish Saab Gripen E as its preferred combat aircraft to replace its aging F-16A/Bs. However, as the RTAF aspires to become one of the best...
View ArticleIndia’s West Asia Quandary
When U.N. peacekeepers stationed in Lebanon came under fire as Israel struck the country, 34 countries who contributed troops to the force immediately put out a joint statement condemning the attacks...
View ArticleThe India-South Korea-US Triad’s Emerging Roles in the Indo-Pacific
The United States and India inaugurated the U.S.-India Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) in January 2023. That was followed by the U.S.-South Korea Next Generation Critical and...
View ArticleWhy Some People Are Calling an Indian Professor’s Death an Institutional Murder
On October 17, Gokarakonda Naga Saibaba, a 57-year-old former teacher at Delhi University, breathed his last at a hospital in southern India due to complications following a gallstone operation. While...
View ArticleNo Perceptible Thaw in India-Pakistan Ties
While Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s recent visit to Pakistan did not result in a breakthrough or even a perceptible thaw in bilateral relations, it has prompted the beginnings of...
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Pushed to the Edge: Why Women Kill in Uzbekistan
On a cold December morning in 2023, at around 8 a.m., 36-year-old Iqbal Alikhanova sent her oldest son to school before returning to her room to start chopping her dead husband’s body into pieces. She...
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Sri Lanka’s Presidential Election Reflected a Regional Divide
Sri Lanka’s September 21 presidential election – the first since the protests in 2022 that ousted former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa – has been praised for the lack of election violence and the...
View ArticlePhilippine Congress Hearings Reveal Sordid Details of Duterte’s Drug War
While the International Criminal Court (ICC) is investigating the role of former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in the bloody enforcement of the “war on drugs,” the House of Representatives has...
View ArticleSmall Explosion Damages Chinese Consulate in Mandalay
The Chinese consulate in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, was reportedly attacked with an explosive device on Friday evening, amid reports that junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing is...
View ArticleBerlin’s Peace Statue Faces Removal Amid Japanese Pressure
The Statue of Peace in Berlin, dedicated to the victims of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery, commonly known as “comfort women,” is at the center of a controversy that could lead to its removal. Initially...
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Avinash Paliwal on Why India’s Approach Toward Its Near East is a Cautionary...
India’s decades-old “Look East” and “Act East” policies, which are aimed at spurring development in India’s northeastern states via connectivity through Myanmar and Bangladesh, have failed to make much...
View ArticleK-pop Idol Tears and International Ripples
The ongoing scandal and discord between the powerful K-pop label Hybe and one of their artist teams, NewJeans, could potentially have a massive impact on perceptions of South Korea and Hallyu. When a...
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