South East Asia

The nightmare scenario in Afghanistan is the collapse of the government and a Taliban takeover, which some believe to be imminent once the U.S. withdraws. Recent attacks show terrorists and insurgents are able to launch strikes with impunity throughout the country targeting civilians, including women and children. The Taliban’s strategy …

The diplomatic row between China and Bangladesh that ensued last week highlights China’s fears about the potential of a “Quad Plus.” The Quad worries China and may explain why Beijing has forcefully attempted to dissuade other Asian states from joining the budding alliance. Bangladesh’s geostrategic position in Asia makes the …

India is hardly in a position to assert on the Afghan chessboard… The bottom line is that New Delhi is highly unlikely to do anything that may undermine the US strategy in Afghanistan, which, incidentally, also has an “Indo-Pacific” dimension to it… New Delhi selectively intensifies its engagement with those …

China is walking a tightrope between economic growth and inflation as industries cope with climate change promises and commodity costs climb. April readings of factory gate prices may have served as a warning of higher costs to come. The producer price index (PPI) jumped 6.8 percent from a year earlier …

Global information networks are undergoing unprecedented innovation, driven in large part by the emergence of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and 5G. Unfortunately for the United States, two other critical, but underappreciated, components of tomorrow’s internet—blockchain and digital currency—are at risk of being controlled largely …

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected Thursday to approve moving the only aircraft carrier based in the Asia-Pacific region to the Middle East, two defense officials told VOA. The rare movement of the USS Ronald Reagan, which is based in Yokosuka, Japan, and usually deploys around the Pacific, would …

China’s military may be examining its decades-old space program for ways to improve data collection and disrupt the satellites of other countries if needed, analysts said this week following a Mars landing and a debris crash into the Indian Ocean. Earlier this month China placed a rover on Mars, the …

In August 2020, China fired what were reported to be anti-ship ballistic missiles (ASBM) into the South China Sea. The missile firings were the second time that China launched such missiles into the disputed waters. The first occurred in June 2019, when China fired six ASBMs into the area. Whether …

China has invested heavily in African infrastructure, often in return for guarantees of access to strategic military or economic opportunities. Investing in relationships with elites has enabled China to maintain strong ties with a number of African governments, especially autocracies. The absence of Chinese colonial history in Africa results in …

Without a large military footprint, can the United States help Afghan women and minorities protect their rights? For the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood of Kabul, home to the Hazara minority group, the devastating May 8 bombing outside a school is part of a disturbing trend of attacks in the area. The bombing …