Observers say he is a sure thing. His party hopes he is. In what is a three-way competition, Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj will be seeking to retain power in the presidential election scheduled for June 26, keeping his Democratic Party the dominant force in government at least until the next legislative election. Read Here – […]
Burma’s transition to a world of economic opportunity, and political freedom was always going to be difficult, and the success of the new regime is still far from assured. Decades of corrupt military rule have left deep scars on the country. And recovering from this will be extremely difficult whilst ever these same military people […]
The country has 7.8 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, worth about $75 billion at current U.K. benchmark prices. Neighbors India and China covet the stuff. In a recent report, the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that energy and industries such as agriculture need a combined $320 billion through 2030 for Myanmar’s economy to […]
For Chinese audiences, the extras mown down in a screen war that never ends are a powerful reminder of Japan’s brutal 14-year occupation, the climax of more than a century of humiliation at the hands of foreign powers. Japanese foreign-policy scholars say more than 200 anti-Japanese films were made last year. This well-nursed grudge is now a […]
Numbers are important in explaining political issues and interpreting election results but they are rarely used to identify a person’s political affiliation, much less a person’s religion. In Southeast Asia, however, where numerology has retained its appeal among the masses, numbers are increasingly being used by politicians and religious leaders in support of a particular […]
It has been 27 years since Hanoi launched the “Doi Moi” reforms that allowed privately owned companies to participate in the economy and opened key sectors, such as agriculture. The rapid growth that followed propelled Vietnam toward the realm of middle-income nations, transforming the onetime war zone into a case study for development and poverty reduction. […]
Every few decades a new energy source comes online and promises to revolutionize the way the world fuels its economies. This was true of the shift from coal and whale oil to conventional oil in the 19th and early 20th century. Then, in the 1960s and 70s came the nuclear power revolution soon followed by […]
It wasn’t supposed to be this way. During her ultimately victorious presidential campaign last year, South Korea’s new conservative president, Park Geun Hye, rarely touched on foreign policy. (Though it’s a fair question as to whether North Korea really constitutes “foreign” policy as far as Seoul is concerned.) When I traveled with Park as she campaigned across […]
Malaysia’s governing coalition won a tight national election on Sunday to extend its 56-year rule, fending off an opposition alliance that pledged to clean up politics and end race-based policies in Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy. Read here – Reuters
When it comes to labor rights and working conditions, Bangladesh is the new China. And not in a good way. The South Asian nation has been the scene of two major industrial disasters in the past six months. In November, a fire in a factory left 112 garment workers dead; in April, a factory collapsed, […]
looking beyond borders 