Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s whirlwind tour of Brunei, Cambodia and Laos between April 22 and 24, 2016 courted support for his country’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. But the issue of China’s […]
Southeast Asia has descended into a maritime insecurity spiral since the April–June 2012 stand-off at Scarborough Shoal between Chinese maritime security forces and the Philippine Navy which led Manila to initiate legal arbitration proceedings in […]
In a 2006 speech Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen praised China, saying that ‘China talks less but does a lot’. China is certainly doing a lot in Cambodia, becoming the country’s largest aid donor and […]
Since the election of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as the next Philippine president in a landslide victory on May 9, 2016, the regional and international media have highlighted his outrageous remarks on various sensitive […]
For the past ten years drug production in Myanmar has been on the rise. The amount of land used to grow poppy — from which the opium sap used to make heroin is derived — […]
After many years of slow growth and stagnation the last couple of years have seen a significant boom in car sales in Vietnam. The country most known for its immense motorbike-riding population now appears to […]
Recent months have seen a continuing increase in military activities in the South China Sea, particularly by the United States and China, but also by ‘bit players’ like India and Japan. These activities only serve […]
The Laos garment industry has been on the decline for the past five years. The value of exports increased from US$87 million in 1995 to a peak of $219 million in 2011, before gradually falling […]
A gloomy outlook is enveloping the world’s economies. There are concerns that countries are failing to sufficiently focus on long-term policy responses to reverse the decline in global growth. Some are even arguing that the […]
There may be more to the Philippines’ new president Rodrigo Duterte than his tough guy image indicates. In the populist theatrics that are Filipino politics the overwhelming election of Duterte should not have come as […]
In early 2014 Russia faced economic sanctions in response to its annexation of Crimea. Many in the country viewed the sanctions as proof that the West has contempt for Russia’s ‘sphere of influence’ in Ukraine […]
Terrorism is not a new phenomenon in Southeast Asia, but goes as far back as the era of anti-colonial struggle. It gathered pace after September 11 with a series of attacks allegedly perpetrated mostly by […]