The imminent establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and two Gulf states, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, is part of an on-going process of security cooperation going back many years. While that robs the event of some drama, it also increases its significance. It means that the process of ending the era of Arab-Israeli confrontation will […]
The wreckage at the State Department runs deep. Career diplomats have been systematically sidelined and excluded from senior Washington jobs on an unprecedented scale. The picture overseas is just as grim, with the record quantity of political appointees serving as ambassadors matched by their often dismal quality. Read Here | Foreign Affairs
Day by day, the US–China confrontation is heating up. The trajectory now appears irreversible. The nations of the Indo-Pacific, Japan included, are sandwiched between the United States and China. It is high time for them to consider strengthening effective regional cooperation by building on ASEAN-centred processes. Read Here | East Asia Forum
For Xi Jinping, the COVID-19 pandemic – which has preoccupied the world’s governments for months – seemed like an ideal opportunity to make quick progress on his expansionist agenda. But by provoking India, he may have bitten off more than he can chew. Read Here | Project Syndicate
Ties between China and India could become even more tangled if New Delhi invites interference from other parties such as the United States, according to a leading Chinese foreign policy expert. With the world’s two most populous developing countries in a border stand-off for nearly five months, Beijing is aware of the growing need to […]
Despite Iran’s severely weakened economy its gross mishandling of the coronavirus, the religious-security establishment in Tehran seems firmly in charge of the country and has shown no hesitation to squash any opposition… The United States and its regional allies have to accept that the Islamic Republic is here to stay and find a way to […]
Growing numbers of people no longer find religion a necessary source of support and meaning in their lives… Modern societies have become less religious in part because they no longer need to uphold the kinds of gender and sexual norms that the major world religions have instilled for centuries. Read Here | Foreign Affairs
The relation between society and the authoritarian presidential state envisaged by the Twentieth Amendment will debilitate constitutional democracy in another highly significant way, and that is by destroying what little remains of the unstated rules of civility, restraint, proportion, tolerance, and accommodation in Sri Lankan political culture. Read Here | Groundviews
For decades, Afghanistan’s untapped mineral wealth has been touted as the country’s trillion-dollar El Dorado. But while the Afghan government has never been able to monetise mountains of copper, iron ore, gold, and gemstones, the Taliban have—and are ramping up their mining operations as just-started peace talks aim to shape the future of a postwar […]
US President Donald Trump lashed out at China in his annual United Nations General Assembly address on Tuesday, saying the country had “unleashed” the coronavirus on the world and polluted the environment at extreme levels with impunity. “We have waged a fierce battle against the invisible enemy: the China virus,” Trump said in a pre-recorded […]
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