50 Years Of ASEAN: ‘A’ Is For Angst

ASEAN is ever beset by existential angst. The ‘A’ in ASEAN stands for Angst as well as Association. Regard this as more description than criticism. The Angst-Association of South East Asian Nations always has lots to worry about. Angst and anxiety are rational responses. The questions are constant: can the association hold together? Can it actually […]

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Why Macron Won And Clinton Lost

Months of post-mortems of Clinton’s loss to Trump overshadow one of the simplest explanations: It’s important to convince voters that you are not corrupt. Macron also benefited from voters who refused to give Le Pen a free pass on her party’s history of racism and xenophobia the way Americans let Trump get away with his inflammatory […]

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China Repeats West’s Mistakes In Pakistan

For the Chinese, these are uncharted waters. They will have to balance gains to the ruling elites in Islamabad and Lahore with those to the locals in Balochistan, who are more than capable of violently disrupting work on the corridor. If China fails to do so, Pakistan will end up more unstable, not less. Read […]

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The People Who Will Run France After Macron’s Win

After years of careful preparation and months of campaigning, Emmanuel Macron and his allies are about to take control of the euro area’s second-biggest economy. Typically associates from the elite French schools where the new president studied, or his time in government under outgoing President Francois Hollande, Team Macron were first dismissed as fantasists and […]

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US And Russia: Future Friends Or Eternal Enemies?

The future for the US-Russia relationship after the American attack on a key Russian ally is, like Trump himself, hard to predict. Many observers believe that outwardly, Putin is feigning anger at the move but will be patient, recognising Trump’s current difficulty in moving towards a closer relationship in view of the scrutiny he is […]

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