In the Face of Oppression, Feminist Resistance in Kazakhstan Persists
Zhanar Sekerbayeva, a co-founder of the Kazakhstan-based feminist organization Feminita, was arrested on February 28. Just a few days later, on March 3, another feminist activist, Aktorgyn...
View ArticleAfghan Schools Reopen for Another Year Without Girls
Last week, my friend Shabana invited me to a small gathering of friends in her house. These parties, small gatherings, are the only option that remains for women in Afghanistan to have a little fun: we...
View ArticleGetting Out of Afghanistan’s Opium Quagmire
Following a ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan imposed by the de facto authorities, the Taliban, in April 2022, opium production plunged by an estimated 95 percent by 2023 from 6,200 tons in 2022...
View ArticleBetting on the Demise of Free Trade? Make Way for the New Players at the Table
The world is once again grappling with a rapidly shifting trade landscape. Since his return to power on January 20, the second administration of Donald Trump has moved swiftly to reshape global trade...
View ArticleThe ‘Reverse Kissinger’ Strategy Is Based on Bad History
Washington is making unexpected overtures to Moscow. In February, the United States opposed a United Nations resolution that condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and reaffirmed Ukraine’s...
View ArticleGender Apartheid: The Erasure of Afghanistan’s Women and Refugee Populations
In collaboration with Amnesty International, this episode focuses on the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe that the global community seems unable or unwilling to address: the plight of the women of...
View ArticleCulture as Strategy: Why India Must Rethink Its Global Influence
In international politics, influence is rarely achieved through military might alone. Nations that successfully shape global narratives and public opinion do so by wielding culture as an instrument of...
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Inside the CCP-Funded Travel Groups Looking to Influence Taiwanese
“Hey, I heard there’s a free travel group to Hainan for Taiwanese people aged 18 to 40. If you’re a first-time traveler, it’s even better,” Jeff, a Taiwanese exchange student in China, told me. “Oh,...
View ArticleMyanmar Junta Chief to Attend Regional Summit in Bangkok: Report
The head of Myanmar’s military junta will reportedly attend a regional summit in Bangkok early next month, his first visit to an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member state since April...
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Myanmar as a ‘Failed State’: A Political Scientist’s View
Photo by Luke Hunt. By most definitions, Myanmar is a failed state. The military has lost control of its borders, it has absolute control over just 15 percent of the country and can not ensure...
View ArticleErasing Aurangzeb to Marginalize Muslims: India’s ‘Grave’ Concern
On March 17, violent clashes erupted in Nagpur in the western Indian state of Maharashtra between Hindus and Muslims. While rumors about the alleged desecration of a copy of the Quran reportedly...
View ArticleBreaking Decades of Silence, Sri Lanka Revisits the Batalanda Legacy
Lenin once said: “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” This quote quite aptly describes recent developments regarding the Batalanda torture camp and...
View ArticlePoster of India’s Yogi Adityanath in Pro-Monarchy Rally Triggers War of Words...
On March 9, thousands of people gathered at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan airport to greet Nepal’s former king, Gyanendra Shah. “Come back king, save the country. Long live our beloved king. We want monarchy,”...
View ArticleConstitutional Court Overturns Impeachment of South Korean Prime Minister
On March 24, South Korea’s Constitutional Court overturned the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, who was suspended from his duties by a vote of the National Assembly on December 27. With five...
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Collateral Damage: UN Sanctions on North Korea at Risk in Putin-Trump Dealings
In a head-spinning reversal of U.S. policy, President Donald Trump has set about engaging in negotiations with Russia, leaving Ukraine largely as an observer in efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war....
View ArticleIndia’s AI Awakening
DeepSeek has triggered a dramatic shift in the global AI race: it transformed the previously dominant framing of a China-U.S. AI rivalry into a broader global competition, especially among emerging...
View ArticleVietnam Island Building in South China Sea Continuing At ‘Breakneck Pace’
Vietnam continues to expand and develop its outposts in the Spratly Islands at a rapid pace after a “record year of island building in 2024,” a U.S. think tank said last week. In a briefing published...
View ArticleUS-China Competition in Southeast Asia Under the Second Trump Administration
“This is our problem now, not China’s,” an Indonesian interlocutor noted amid a lengthy delay late last year on board Southeast Asia’s first high-speed railway linking the Indonesian cities of Jakarta...
View ArticleUS Private Equity Is Making Interesting Moves in the Indo-Pacific
I recently wrote about the de-listing of Malaysia Airports from the Malaysian stock exchange. It was taken over by a consortium of investors led by two government-linked investment vehicles: sovereign...
View ArticleNo Aid, All Investments: The Future of Chinese Engagement in Kazakhstan
On March 10, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio tweeted that 83 percent of the 6,200 projects run by USAID globally would be shut down. While it wasn’t stated exactly which programs were to be...
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