After campaigning tirelessly throughout the majority of her adult life in hopes of bringing democracy to her country and after spending nearly fifteen of those years under house arrest for espousing her views, Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s icon of hope and political freedom, has unofficially won a seat in the country’s parliament. An official […]
India repeatedly undermines the vitality of its democratic example The past week brought fresh evidence of just how deeply India abounds in contradiction. On the one hand, New Delhi won international plaudits for standing up for democratic norms in Asia by voting at the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate alleged war crimes in neighboring Sri Lanka. […]
Some are making a connection between the recent mass murder in Afghanistan and the My Lai incident in 1968. They are wrong to do so. The more recent event, in which Staff Sgt. Robert Bales allegedly killed 17 civilians (many women and children) in Afghanistan, looks like the actions of a lone person who snapped. […]
Focusing on the high-tech agenda would instill a level of momentum in bilateral ties that has been noticeably missing since George W. Bush left the White House. U.S. Commerce Secretary John Bryson is in India this week with a high-powered business delegation in tow. Chief among his objectives will be furthering American involvement in India’s […]
The 2012 Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit will take place April 3rd and 4th in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. As the new chair of the regional bloc for the 2012 year, Cambodia will have an opportunity to show off its capital city’s latest developments, both socioeconomic and political. The streets are already being decked […]
Two articles in the Wall Street Journal this week contain thoughts bearing on the debate regarding the relative virtues of China’s authoritarianism and India’s free-wheeling, cacophonous democratic system. Countless paeans have been written about the triumphs of centralized, technocratic pragmatism in Beijing. The closed-door, brutally efficient decision-making may not be all that great in terms of […]
Taking lessons from the Fukushima nuclear incident in March 2011, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will review standard evacuation procedures in the event of a threat to a US nuclear plant, an NRC official said at a think tank event Thursday (March 22nd). Although current NRC standards require a 10-mile evacuation buffer and […]
The global diplomatic community heaped major embarrassment on Sri Lanka on March 22 as it adopted a United States-sponsored resolution at the ongoing session of UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) censuring the island nation for alleged war crimes in the conflict with Tamil Tiger rebels that ended in 2009. In the 47-member UNHRC, 24 countries […]
“Let me tell you, it hurts. It hurts bad,” remarks Johnny Phillips, elucidating the emotional and sometimes physical pain extracting yet another $1000 from an ATM in Phnom Penh can cause. Mr. Phillips is the founder of BuckHunger, a nonprofit organization which seeks to provide free food to Cambodian children whilst also teaching the kids […]
Perception is reality, here there and in Afghanistan; and for good reason, whatever the truth. After thirty years of near constant war the Afghan people might be forgiven for not being bothered to test their reality for truth, when often enough their lives are bought for cheap blood money and whatever passes for reality is […]
The three-year feud between the Sri Lankan government and international rights groups came under global spotlight for the second time in a week on March 14 when in a report launched in Geneva, Amnesty International said dozens of people in Sri Lanka have been abducted and tortured by security forces since 2009, and hundreds are […]
Update 03/15/2012 9:00AM: Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported Thursday Bo Xilai would be replaced as Chongqing Communist Party leader by Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang. [end update] It appears Chongqing chief Bo Xilai’s political aspirations have been irrevocably scuppered by China’s head of government after attempts to distance himself from a recent scandal failed. Addressing […]
One year to the day after the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami I am signing off on the Japan blog. The disaster-in-installments that was kicked off by the March 11 quake, the largest in Japanese history, was a primary focus of this blog, and Japan’s reaction shed light onto characteristics of Japanese society. The purpose […]
Speaking at a Brookings Institution panel discussion in Washington, DC on Friday (March 2nd), ex-nuclear envoy Dr. Robert Gallucci startled audiences with the admission that he believes use of force may be the only method to ensure Iran’s nuclear program is irrevocably halted. “I have no confidence that any degree of sanctions will actually stop […]
When Nepal’s current Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai assumed office in November 2011 to head a coalition government with the Madhesi Front as partner, many in Nepal were cautiously optimistic about him bringing an end to the disillusionment brought by four failed governments in four years- owing to delay in the […]
