Aung San Suu Kyi, the iconic figure of Myanmarese politics, has been moved from prison to house arrest. This may seem a baby step, but make no mistake, the journey of a thousand steps begins with one step, as the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu had said. This development signifies stirrings in the air, a…
If the UN truly had innocent intentions, then it couldn’t in good conscience punish 20 million Ethiopians by cutting off their food aid while then complaining about Myanmar suspending their aid operations to one million people in that country. The UN’s World Food Program suspended aid to Ethiopia after USAID did the same in response…
Absent the comparative (Russian-mediated?) restoration of Sino-Indo trust, especially after bilateral ties nosedived this past week, their rivalry will likely only get worse. A Tough Week For Sino-Indo Ties Ties between China and India continued their downward trajectory over the past week as a result of three developments: China’s renaming of Indian-controlled disputed territory; both…
International relations remains the sum game of vast hypocrisies, a patchwork of compromises and the compromised. Every moral condemnation of a regime’s conduct is bound to be shown up as an exercise in double standards, often implicating the accusers. In the case of the military regime in Myanmar, double standards are not only modish but…
China’s ascendant global power is showing up the increasingly bankrupt condition of the United States and its Western allies. China is succeeding where the British, French and Japanese imperialist powers failed. This year saw the full operation of the China-Laos Railway, the first link in an ambitious Pan-Asian Rail Network that will integrate eight Southeast…
Russia’s military, economic, strategic, and potentially even diplomatic support for Myanmar (the latter referring in this context to it possibly mediating the Rohingya dispute with neighboring Bangladesh) can combine to create effective “Democratic Security” outcomes for stabilizing this geo-pivotal state at the crossroads of South and Southeast Asia, which will in turn accelerate the global…
