Foreign Policy Blogs

Asia & Pacific

Indo-China border talks

Indo-China border talks

Arunachal Pradesh seemed to dominate th4e 13th Indo-China talks in New Delhi on Aug 7-8. China lays claim to parts of the north-eastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh (AP). The McMohan line forms the disputed border along the AP region and was drawn after an agreement between Tibet and Britain in 1914. China rejects the […]

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Top Avoids Death,San Suu Kyi Sentenced, And Other News

Top Avoids Death,San Suu Kyi Sentenced, And Other News

– South East Asia Times is reporting that the man killed in the Indonesian government’s  raid in central Java is not Noordin Mohammed Top.  The government will compare the DNA of the corpses of the man suspected of being Top to one of Top’s children, which may take up to two weeks.  This may be […]

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Jakarta Hotel Bombing Suspect Dead?

Jakarta Hotel Bombing Suspect Dead?

Most wanted Malaysian Islamic terrorist, Noordin Mohammad Top, 40, member of the Jemaah Islaymiyah splinter group Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad, is being reported dead, although it has not yet been confirmed by the Indonesian government.  He was reportedly killed in a  duel raid, one on a house in Beji village, Temanggung, Central Java and another in […]

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Cleaning the Indo-Bhutan border

Cleaning the Indo-Bhutan border

Five years after ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) and Bodo/NDFB (National Democratic Front of Bodoland) militants were flushed out from Bhutanese territory, India expressed concern that 30 cadres of these militants might have reentered Bhutan. Though Bhutan denied the evidence of any permanent camps it recognized the possibility of the militants regrouping in the […]

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Australian PM's Flight of Fancy

Australian PM's Flight of Fancy

Asia Times Online is running an article that touches on Australian PM Kevin Rudd’s desire for a Asia-Pacific Union similar to the European Union by 2020.   This union would include all of ASEAN, China, Japan, India, and the United States.   As fantastic as the proposal is, he is not the first Australian PM […]

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Key Militant Dead ?

Breaking news informs us that Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud is “believed dead when a drone fired two Hellfire missiles along the Afghan border”. U.S. and Pakistani officials have yet to confirm the reports let alone acknowledge this as a triumph against Tehrik-e-Taliban, the organization Mehsud headed. Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik expressed “cautious optimism” while […]

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Suing the Opposition Into Submission

Suing the Opposition Into Submission

It seems Cambodia’s ruling party, the People’s Party (KPK),  might be learning the art of soft authoritarianism – by legal manipulation from Singapore’s PAP (People’s Action Party).  Despite the fact, the KPK won 90 of 123 seats in the last election, the party still feel vulnerable  to the press and opposition, because their criticism centers on […]

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Musharraf in Hindsight

No explanation can at this moment adequately address the horrors carried out in Gojra Pakistan. But these horrors are newsworthy and have potential to serve as a lesson in uprooting such inhumanity. Rather than focusing squarely and vaguely on vast historical causation that might allow factions to commit these horrors, a closer look at the […]

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News

The National Disaster Management Authority released its Guidelines for Management of Chemical (Terrorism) Disaster on Tuesday. The guidelines deal with “counter-terrorism strategies, surveillance and environmental monitoring, prevention of illegal trafficking of hazardous waste, Human Resource Development, which includes education and training, knowledge management and community awareness.” An overview of the guidelines can be found here.

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Gojra Violence

Awful news from Pakistan, yet again about the way minorities are treated in the country. It is alleged that during a wedding ceremony last Thursday,  pages of Quran were desecrated, and this news was enough to trigger unbelievable attacks against Christians in Gojra, Punjab. No one knows who desecrated the Holly Quran and why, but […]

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Ms. Arroyo Goes to Washington

Ms. Arroyo Goes to Washington

American President Barack Obama’s first meeting with Filipino President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo , which is also his first meeting with a Southeast Asian head of state, was overshadowed in the American press by the domestic melodrama, known as “Gates-Gate” or the “Beer Summit”.

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A chance at leadership

It looks like India might get a new nuclear-weapons neighbor to its north east. According to recent reports Myanmar may be on its way to developing military nuclear capability with the help of North Korea. Myanmar and North Korea have improved their military trade relations over the last few years, and nuclear collaboration as an […]

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Roundup August 2, 2009

Roundup August 2, 2009

– Former Filipino President Corazon Aquino, the nations first female president, died at age 76 from colon cancer.  Current president, Gloria Magapacal-Arroyo, who was a protege of Aquino, before a split with her over corruption charges, has declared a 10 day period of national mourning.  Aquino is best known for being the widow of Benigno […]

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Pakistan & Terrorism – A True Picture

The recent reports in Western media about Pakistan’s link to Jihadi groups fail to present a balanced picture about what is going on in Pakistan. These drive by reports, coupled with the analysis of the so-called experts on T.V. further confuse the situation. It is difficult to imagine, but there was a time when there […]

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Democratic Reforms in Lee'apore?

Democratic Reforms in Lee'apore?

ct82hpgjq6 Singapore’s People’s Action Party (PAP) has long been the institutional embodiment of Lee Family Power.  Using the PAP, Lee family patriarch, Lee Kuan-Yew created a political monopoly,  in the nation of  4.6 million people, that has lasted its entire 50 years of independence.   This monopoly allowed the establishment of a dynasty with the ascension […]

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