The roiling dispute over a remote set of rocks in the East China Sea, known to the Japanese as the Senkaku Islands and to the Chinese as the Diaoyus, is more than a mere diplomatic spat between two of the world’s largest economies. It has stripped away the thin veneer of cooperation between the two […]
In 2006 Abe Shinzo, appointed again last week as leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Japan’s main opposition party, wrote; “It will not be a surprise if in another decade, Japan-India relations overtake Japan-U.S. and Japan-China ties.” Such a prediction now, as it was then, is improbable, but the prospect of Abe assuming Japan’s top office […]
After decades of dealing with the Indian hand in their country’s domestic affairs, Nepali politicians are now confronted with another assertive neighbour — China. Moving from a relatively detached approach to high-profile engagement, Beijing has now started making its views known about Nepal’s political transition. In the past, efforts by sections of Nepali politicians to […]
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet unveiled a second wave of policy changes intended to bolster a slumping economy as he seeks to restore faith in his leadership and establish a platform for his party less than two years before the next general election. In a move that signaled the Congress party-led government’s intent to push ahead […]
In case you were wondering, this is what an economy dying looks like. More specifically, it’s what a currency dying looks like. It turns out the latter implies the former, as Iran is quickly finding out. The chart below compares the official and black market exchange rates between the Iranian rial and the U.S. dollar. […]
While the civil war in Syria continues to grab headlines, prompting some in the international community to call for immediate intervention, another major conflict, displacing thousands of civilians, rages in Central Africa. Despite the rising number of refugees and internally displaced persons, as well as the reports of massive human rights violations being committed against the local […]
A NEW force is emerging in Asian politics: the non-politician—or at least the politician posing as such. In South Korea the campaign for the presidential election in December has been shaken up by the new candidacy of an independent, Ahn Chul-soo, a former doctor turned antivirus-software tycoon. In Japan the new Japan Restoration Party (JRP), […]
Last September a woman was raped by two police officers in Tunisia, while a third officer held down her fiancé who had been with her in a car. It was a weighty event in a country that is still feeling its way forward after it inaugurated the era of Arab revolutions, said the Lebanese journalist […]
Since his election for the country’s top post last June, Egyptian President Mohammad Mursi has been sending mixed messages as to whether he seeks to normalise relations with Iran after more than three decades of bitter animosity. In the wake of the Egyptian revolution, pro-Iran analysts expected that the new Islamist government in Cairo would […]
AFTER months of firing up core supporters in swing states with partisan attack lines and blood-chilling predictions about the other side’s plans, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney found themselves in their first televised debate on October 3rd, obliged to pitch for undecided voters and independents nationwide. Both Mr Obama and Mr Romney duly struck a […]
