The Singaporean elite is faced with an unusual dilemma: a potential leader who surpasses all his peers in terms of modern administrative and political skills. In Singapore, where raw brain-power and book learning have long trumped emotional intelligence, Tharman has the intuition and rhetoric to win over and persuade his countrymen like no one else. […]
The three countries that started the Korean War in June 1950—Russia (USSR), China and North Korea—are still manoeuvring to secure a better outcome. When World War II ended in August 1945, American and Soviet troops had met more or less amicably at about the 38th parallel on the Korean peninsula. In 1949, both those powers […]
Following the recent Sikkim standoff and the finger-pointing between China and India, the Chinese public and media outlets have once again taken notice of their long-neglected neighbour, with many experts calling for a better understanding of India’s current power. “India’s [power] should be assessed dialectically. It would be wrong to prettify or look down on […]
Bhutan, one of the world’s smallest nations, has protested that the Asian colossus, China, is chipping away at its territory by building a strategic highway near the Tibet-India-Bhutan trijunction in the Himalayas. Bhutan has security arrangements with India, and the construction has triggered a tense standoff between Chinese and Indian troops at the trijunction, with […]
North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile flew right past President Donald Trump’s boast of “It won’t happen!” Guess what, boss? It’s happening. It’s bad and it’s going to get worse. And Trump has no plan for how to stop it… If Kim is not stopped it is likely that he will have missiles capable of hitting Los Angeles, New […]
From Hong Kong to Cambodia and Thailand to Indonesia and across to the Philippines, governments are this week marking the political convulsions and financial turmoil that swept the region 20 years ago, and reshaped its destiny forever. Read Here – The Diplomat
The dysfunctional relationship among the Lee siblings might have stayed behind closed doors but for two inconvenient details. First, they were fighting over the house of Lee Kuan Yew, the man who was virtually synonymous with Singapore for five decades. Second, the eldest among the siblings is the current Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Hsien […]
For more than a decade, Asian countries have been on a submarine spending spree. Some countries are updating obsolete vessels while others are purchasing submarines for the first time. This trend has largely been driven by growing concerns nations have over maintaining a deterrent against an increasingly assertive China broadly, but also rivalries with neighbours […]
Bangladesh’s population of 160 million is as big as France, Germany, and the Netherlands combined. The country is also easily the poorest of the world’s 10 most populous. Given its size and the depth of its poverty, the country’s recent economic boom must rank as one of the world’s happiest economic stories right now. Read […]
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 […]
looking beyond borders 