J. McGillis & A. Kim, RCWorld
The island of Borneo sits more than 1,000 miles due south from mainland China across a vast expanse of the sea. That distance, however, hasn't stopped the People's Republic from treating Borneo as its own backyard. The three countries that share the island—Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei—now find themselves on the receiving end of the same trademarked Beijing resource grab that has, to greater publicity, threatened the Philippines and Vietnam.
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J. Lindley-French, Clingendael
The recent AUKUS pact between the US, the UK and Australia is telling for the future of Western-led geopolitical networks, according to defence analyst Julian Lindley-French. AUKUS reveals how Western alliances, coalitions and regimes are being transformed by China's growing maritime military power. Eventually, France and other European countries will have no other choice than to find their own roles in this transforming geopolitical landscape.
Anil Sigdel, East Asia Forum
The alliance between the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist and Leninist) (CPN-UML) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) (CPN-MC), which won a landslide victory in the elections three years ago, has now fractured into three different political parties. The merger between the CPN-UML, led by then prime minister KP Sharma Oli, and the CPN-MC, led by former rebel leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal (known as Prachanda) — which...
Pavel Baev, Jamestown
Introduction Below the surface, not everything is smooth in China-Russia relations, but it can be difficult to see past the exaggerated plaudits generated by powerful propaganda machines on the unique closeness of the two strategic partners. Only a few keen observers picked up on a remarkable discrepancy in the respective Chinese and Russian press-services readouts of an August 25 phone …
Daniel Dombey & Ben Hall, Financial Times
It was as if events took place in reverse. In March, Spain's prime minister Pedro Sánchez and King Felipe VI visited the carmaker Seat, near Barcelona, to mark their support for the electrical vehicle project the country hopes will modernise and preserve its vital automobile industry.
Ahmed Maher, The National
Sudan has witnessed a turbulent month filled with growing civilian-military tensions that could have a global ripple effect
Van Jackson, Foreign Affairs
Washington's approach to Asia has long been overmilitarized. Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump both sought to shore up what remained of U.S. hegemony in the region—the former with his signature "pivot to Asia" and the latter with his objective of a "free and open Indo-Pacific." Both initiatives saw a threat in China's growing wealth, political influence, and military power, and both came to be associated almost entirely with Pentagon pronouncements and... Читать дальше...
Xibai Xu et al, ChinaFile
In what many observers have termed a "regulatory crackdown," a wave of new legal restrictions and bans on business, technology, and entertainment has broken across China over the past several months, with what appears to be escalating velocity and force. Most recently, new rules have hit companies involved in everything from how Chinese consumers can
Ali Wyne, Lowy Interpreter
A new model of great power relations should begin with accepting the enduring need for coexistence.
S. Nathan Park, Foreign Policy
Seoul's new missile technologies have both Pyongyang and Beijing in mind.
The Economist
But plans for international financial centres worry tax campaigners
Brian Radzinsky, WOTR
Soon after entering office in 1969, U.S. President Richard Nixon grew worried about the nuclear balance with the Soviet Union. In the few years since the
J. Dahlkamp et al, Spiegel
Drug gangs in the Netherlands have long since graduated from hashish to cocaine - and from dealing on the streets to a spree of contract killings. Police, lawyers, journalists: All are at risk of falling victim to the drug violence that has gripped the country.
Julia Petrovskaya, Riddle
Yulia Petrovskaya on how Moscow and Beijing confront the "collective West" in BiH and Kosovo
Jeremy Cliffe, New Statesman
The US still attracts the world's best minds, but China's latest test of military hardware shows it is very much in the race.
Lincicome & Blumsack, 1945
Although most of the discussion surrounding current U.S. port and supply chain bottlenecks has focused on the economy and Americans' holiday shopping plans, some are using the situation to sell the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package now before Congress. That bill directs nearly $12 billion in taxpayer funding to U.S. seaport infrastructure and billions more in general […]
Thomas Lorman, Spectator
Opposing Viktor Orbán is a formidable task. Support for his coalition hovers at around the 40 per cent mark while the parliamentary system makes it harder for opposition parties to break through. By 2018, all of the opposition parties, most of which are firmly on the left, realised they were individually incapable of breaking through. They began fielding joint candidates and had some early success when Gergely Karácsony won the mayoralty of Budapest. So they agreed... Читать дальше...
Baher al-Kady, Al Monitor
Protests are sweeping eastern Sudan, which includes three of the country's poorest states.
