A dozen Pacific-rim nations agreed to an historic pact that would cut trade barriers on items ranging from cars to rice, setting up a potentially contentious ratification vote before a skeptical U.S. Congress. After a week of final talks in Atlanta, an agreement was announced on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a pact more than five years in […]
The British Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm once called the epoch stretching from the French Revolution of 1789 to World War I’s outbreak in 1914 as the “long 19th century.” A little over a decade ago, people began to speculate about an emerging “Asian century,” driven by an unstoppable China and enabled by America’s supposed inevitable […]
World stock markets plunged on Monday, after a near 9 percent dive in China shares and a sharp drop in the dollar and major commodities sent investors rushing for the exits. After dropping more than 1,000 points, or almost 7 percent, at Wall Street’s open, the Dow Jones industrial average eased losses but was still off […]
Singapore is throwing itself a grand 50th-anniversary party this weekend, and it has plenty to celebrate. Its income per capita has grown from roughly $540 in 1965 to more than $55,000 in 2014. That’s about the same as the U.S. and on par with the richest countries in Europe. If ever there was an economic miracle, […]
ASEAN’s leaders are worried about what history tells them about the future of Southeast Asia. The fears about the lessons of history are a discordant note as ASEAN steps up to a great moment in its history—the creation of an economic, political-security and social Community in December 2015. Read Here – The National Interest
If I were to write about a new power rising in the East, one whose population of 633 million is the third largest in the world after China and India, and 100 million more than either the European Union or the whole of North America, you might expect to have heard quite a lot about […]
There was little Malaysia’s Mahathir Mohamad and Singapore’s Lee Kwan Yew could agree given their historical baggage. Read Here – Wall Street Journal
Anyone familiar with Singapore knows that race is a national obsession, and far more than a box to be ticked on official forms. Read Here – The Diplomat
For months now, protestors have gathered in the capitals of many developing nations—Turkey, Ukraine, Thailand, Venezuela, Malaysia, and Cambodia, among others—in demonstrations united by some key features. Read Here – Businessweek
The “Allah” crisis is masking a nuanced and historic racial debate in Malaysian politics. Read Here – The Diplomat
looking beyond borders 