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Asia & Pacific

Cambodia’s current government is the face of tropical Fascism

There is no hope that the authoritarianism that the world sees in places like Russia, China and Cambodia can ever be interpreted as a peaceful and benign phenomenon, or that it should be accepted by an implicit racist or discriminatory assumption that some cultures just don’t have a democratic tradition and aren’t quite capable of ever developing one.

US & Philippines agree to ramp up defense cooperation

The US and Philippines announced on February 2 a substantial expansion of their existing military cooperation arrangements, increasing the number of facilities that American...

Xi’s China could be more dangerous than Mao ever dreamed

China’s Communist Party, which has undergone a transformation back to its Maoist roots under Xi Jinping, has been caught off guard by the widespread...

Chinese operatives accused of supporting Huawei in the US

Chinese spies were conducting foreign intelligence operations to impede an ongoing investigation involving the technology and communications firm Huawei.

Major Japanese auto companies giving up on Russia

Toyota and Nissan, two major Japanese automakers with substantial manufacturing capacity, pulled out of Russia after both claimed that carrying out any future business...

How China took over the WTO behind the West’s back

Last year marked the 20th anniversary of China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, a result that followed 15 arduous years of negotiations. Many...

What South Korea’s new president means for Japan

On March 9, 2022, South Korean voters elected Yoon Suk-yeol – a former prosecutor turned politician from the main opposition People Power Party (PPP)...

Historical differences will not erode an advantageous 21st-Century Chinese-Russian partnership

The 21st century has seen the forging of “cooperative” relations between China and Russia, with the benefits of this new partnership outweighing the historical differences between...

EU blocks takeover of DSME by Hyundai Heavy Industries

The European Commission has prohibited the acquisition of Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) by Hyundai Heavy Industries Holdings (HHIH), noting that the merger...

The Korean Peninsula should remain a security concern

With both South Korea and the United States focused on domestic matters – 2022 presidential race and 2022 midterm elections respectively, it will be...

Why China cannot invade Taiwan

China’s recent aerial incursion in Taiwan air defense zone and President Xi Jinping’s confrontational remarks re-prompted a debate on whether or not Beijing is...

EU, South East Asia launch Green Team Europe Initiative to protect the environment

During the 3rd ASEAN-EU Dialogue on Sustainable Development, European Union Commissioner for International Partnerships Jutta Urpilainen launched on November 18 a Green Team Europe...

ASEAN at a crossroads

The recently concluded ASEAN summit held under the chairmanship of Brunei was emblematic in underlining the ambitions of the regional South East Asian regional...

Clean energy key for net zero by 2050

Following the start of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, Alberto Troccoli, the managing director of World Energy & Meteorology Council at...

EU, UNEP launch International Methane Emissions Observatory

At the G20 Summit, on the eve of the COP26 UN climate conference in Glasgow, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) with support from the...

Uzbekistan re-elects President Mirziyoyev to second term

Uzbekistan held presidential elections on October 24, in a peaceful and secure atmosphere, with incumbent President Shavkat Mirziyoyev handily taking first place with 80.1%...

A dash of UK Hubris: Containing China

Hubris is a fickle emotion. Too much of it can be deadly, while too little of it can be crushing. A country with a...

In US foreign policy, realists are finally on the rise

During the autumn of 2020, the United States lost one of its most brilliant, incisive, yet unheralded thinkers in Sherle R. Schwenninger.One of Schwenninger’s...

The need for trilateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific

A coercive China and a nuclear North Korea are peripherally affecting the U.S.’ security interests in the Indo-Pacific.  With increasingly well-developed power derived from...

EU-US mobilise further support for Global Methane Pledge

Ahead of the UN climate summit in Glasgow, European Union Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans, who leads the EU's international negotiations on climate, and Special...

Athens rocked by Biden’s nomination of political operative

After an extended period of uncertainty over who would be tapped, on October 8 US President Joe Biden announced his intention to nominate influential...

Is the EU ready to protect its food supply chains?

The EU’s internal market commissioner Thierry Breton conducted a tour of Japan and South Korea last week, in a bid to strike up partnerships...

What kind of a threat Is Russia?

In his latest book, The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency, American political scientist John Mueller demonstrates that since the...

The West needs to unite to fight for human rights

Human rights seem nonexistent in today’s world. That’s because the world’s democracies are not fighting for it. While the world’s dictatorships always seem to have...

Why the Taliban’s promise to stop the opium trade rings hollow

One of the first announcements the Taliban made after seizing power in Afghanistan in August was that they were going to “ban the production and sale...

AUKUS: A French ‘beurre noisette’ in the Indo-Pacific

Any fan of French haute gastronomy understands the prominent role that noisette beurre, or burnt butter, plays in their recipes. As the speciality adds...

Why the fall of Afghanistan sllows Iran to expand its influence

Since 2020, the United States has been working to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. The Americans' announcement emboldened the Taliban, who recently took control...

President Biden’s short UN General Assembly visit raises questions

President Joe Biden’s first address to the 76th UN General Assembly (UNGA) on September 21 provided the world with an almost infinite supply of...

Canada’s election and its meaning for Ukraine

Though it is hard to say, the recent election in Canada was a waste of money. After the expenditure of over $600 million (CDN),...

With the AUKUS pact, the US has opted to snub some of its European partners

In the nearly nine months since he took office, it has become apparent that the US and European Union will not immediately experience a...

Will Central Asia serve as Europe’s bridge to Afghanistan?

Just over one month on from the fall of Kabul, Europe is still grasping for answers to the question of how to engage in...

EU and US can close the climate finance gap together, says von der Leyen

While every country has a responsibility, major economies do have a special duty to the least developed and most vulnerable countries to tackle climate...

What are Turkey’s ambitions in Afghanistan after the US’ withdrawal?

After the United States finished its withdrawal from the two-decade war in Afghanistan on August 31, regional powers remain at work trying to understand...

The West must apply the lessons of Afghanistan and Tunisia to Libya

Twenty years have now passed since 9/11. Since then, differing ideas of the importance of democracy in Middle Eastern policy have dominated the foreign...

After Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, TAPI is more of a pipe dream

The regime change in Afghanistan and the removal of Western political influence will probably make the implementation of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline even...

On 9/11, it’s time for a reckoning and reflection of decades of failed US national security policy

A reckoning with America’s failed national security policy is long overdue.Our calamitous misadventures in the Middle East and the global financial collapse of 2008...

What next after 20 years of war in Afghanistan? Anatol Lieven on the U.S.’ legacy and the Taliban’s rise

On August 30, 2021, a C-17 transport plane took off from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, signaling the end of America’s longest war....

Enough of the Durban depravity

This month marks the 20th anniversary of the so-called “World Conference Against Racism”, otherwise known as Durban I. The 2001 conference was to be...

Europe willingly forfeited a leadership role in Afghanistan

If Winston Churchill were alive today, I imagine he might have said something like “Never in the history of human conflict have so few...

Afghanistan 2021: An extremist ‘stammtisch’

Everybody has a favorite bar or coffee house. A place you can go to seek solace or connect with old friends. In some cases,...

CATL brings EV battery technologies and manufacturing to Europe

The association of European automotive and industrial battery manufacturers, EUROBAT, announced on September 2 that Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (CATL) has joined its...

Economic progress and political reforms give post-Soviet space reason to celebrate

On August 30th, Kazakhstan celebrated one of the country’s most important holidays—Constitution Day, which commemorates the adoption of the 1995 constitution which confirmed the...

How Erdogan will “manage” the Afghan refugee crisis

Images of Afghan refugees scrambling to escape Kabul following the Taliban’s seizure of power will haunt the international community for decades. According to the...

Mikheil Saakashvili – The post-Soviet space’s once and future buffoon

It isn't every day you find yourself talking to a major figure of recent history, especially not one who has staged both a successful...

An EU diplomatic ‘bâdgir’ in Vienna: The Iran nuclear deal 2.0

When things get hot, you look to cool them down. Persian culture is too familiar with heat with scorching Middle East temperatures. One of...

An Afghan coda

Very rarely, if ever, do I ever write in the first person when offering an opinion or analysis of either a current or past...

The EU is nothing but a feckless spectator in the unfolding Afghan crisis

The surprising speed by which the Taliban seized control, with relative ease, of the whole of Afghanistan is a major geopolitical debacle for the...

A monster miracle from a cave

In the history of sport, there have been many unforgettable victories. True testaments of teams achieving the unthinkable. The 1980 Winter Olympics men’s hockey...

Russia and China poised to gain influence in Afghanistan

Amidst the chaotic scenes that ushered in the Taliban’s take over of the Afghan capital Kabul, coupled with the West's harried exodus from the...

The legacy of failure in Afghanistan starts in 1979, not 2001

A decade ago, John Lamberton Harper, a professor of US Foreign Policy and European Studies at Johns Hopkins in Bologna, Italy published an indispensable...

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