This is a post on Somali pirates that I wrote for the American Enterprise Institute’s Enterprise Blog. I thought would be good to upload here too since it focuses on lessons for Somalia from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore’s strategy for combating piracy in the Strait of Malacca. Arthur Herman published an impassioned article in the […]
Overshadowed by unrest in the Middle East, violent border clashes between Thailand and Cambodia flared up again this month in the region surrounding the Preah Vihear temple. Thailand and Cambodia have been fighting over the temple for more than a century. Commissioned by Kings in the Khmer Empire (based in what is now Cambodia), Preah […]
Last week, the Vietnamese Ambassador to China, Nguyen Van Tho, spoke at a reception hosted by the Vietnamese Embassy in Beijing to celebrate the 61st anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two nations. The Ambassador stressed that comprehensive cooperation with China was top priority for Vietnam and a major factor in all Vietnamese policy decisions. […]
While the downgrade of Japanese debt by S&P last week garnered all the media attention, Fitch Ratings released their report on banks in the broader Asia Pacific region a couple of days ago. It issued a stable outlook for the most part but issued a cautionary note for banks in China and Vietnam. A good […]
Burma’s first elected parliament in half a century convened in its new compound in Naypyitaw today. It was not met with any enthusiasm by the Burmese people, however, who viewed the November 7 elections as a charade and do not expect any change under the new government. Unfortunately, this lack of optimism is justified since […]
Yesterday, India observed Republic Day, celebrating the 61st anniversary of the date its Constitution came into force. The chief guest at India’s first Republic Day on January 26, 1950 had been the then-Indonesian President Sukarno whom India’s Prime Minister at the time, Jawaharlal Nehru, supported during Indonesia’s struggle for freedom from the Netherlands. In 2011, […]
Asia’s two most prominent regional bodies, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), were formed with similar objectives that include accelerating economic growth, social progress and cultural development among their members. Despite being around for decades, both have been far from successful, while simultaneously proving unhelpful […]
Dear Readers, The South East Asian blog is back online! I am taking over from Faheem and Collin and am excited about the opportunity to blog about a very fascinating region of the world. You can learn more about me in the About the Author page to the right and especially note that I welcome […]
Dear Readers: Sorry for the lapse in posting. I have been on hiatus for the past month taking care of some personal issue. I have an announcement. From today forward, I will be contributing to the Foreign Policy China Blog, as Chinese related issues are closer to my area of study. It has been fun […]
Indonesia: As speculated about previously, the U.S. will upgrade its support to the Indonesian military, even the notorious Kopassus. This is in spite of continued human rights concerns, because the need of America to be able to contain China’s expansion into the South China Sea is becoming critical to the Obama Administration. It is likely […]
Cambodia – My colleague, Sean Patrick Murphy, over at FB’s Global Film Review blog, has an interesting post about a new documentary, “S21, The Khmer Rogue Killing Machine”. The documentary interviews former Khmer Rogue members who worked at the infamous S21 prison camp, where various crimes against humanity were committed during the reign of Pol […]
Cambodia: Corruption and illiberalism pays according to an article running at the Asian Times. The author believes that Cambodian foreign aid has continued to increase, despite Hun Sen’s continued political oppression of the opposition, due to the West’s fear that any decline in aid flows would create a void that will most certainly filled by […]
This is an update to an earlier blog post concerning the Burmese Junta’s nuclear ambitions and the aid it might be receiving from North Korea. Last year, the Japan Times ran an article on this topic, now Al-Jazeera has aired an investigative report. In the strategic footsteps of North Korea, Myanmar’s leaders are also building […]
Over the last couple of days things have escalated again in Bangkok. It is unclear what ignited the latest round of violence, but it appears that Wednesday’s rejection of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s proposed compromise, after its initial tentative acceptance by the Red Shirts, caused the government to run out of patience. What is clear […]
Thailand: PM Abhisit Vejjajiva gave a nationally televised speech, on Monday, offering a “reconciliation plan” to the entrenched Red Shirt opposition protesters (United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship (UDD)). The proposal would include calling for new parliamentary elections on November 14, 2010. This has come , “not a moment too soon”, as there were […]