Showing 1 - 10 of 150
Is Asean now a new 'balancing wheel'?
Oped, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 15/07/2025
» Last week's Asean Foreign Ministers' Meeting reflects its continued relevance in an increasingly unstable world. Amid US unilateralism and US President Donald Trump's tariff nationalism, Asean has reasserted itself as a balancing wheel -- a stabilising force on which its dialogue partners can still depend.
Americans cash out on gold as Asian investors bulk up
Published on 28/06/2025
» Americans who once snapped up gold bars and coins are offloading the assets while their Asian counterparts show no letup in buying, a sign that investors on opposite sides of the world have different outlooks on the global economy.
Shape of new climate politics emerges
News, Published on 07/06/2025
» Only a few months ago, a headline like "United States sets tariffs of up to 3,521% on solar panels from Southeast Asia" could have been dismissed as satire. Today, it's nothing special, one of many published amid an uninterrupted fusillade accompanying Donald Trump's first 100 days in power. Yet it's also part of something bigger, as axes of economic power shift, technological changes surge, and popular sentiments reconfigure and metastasise. Amid that fracturing world order, how should we consider the climate crisis?
E-commerce as trade war front
News, Chairith Yonpiam, Published on 11/04/2025
» As the trade war between the United States and China intensifies, Southeast Asia's e-commerce platforms are emerging as a new battleground in the global economic conflict, an expert warned.
Remembering a journo like no other
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 04/04/2025
» Gwen Robinson was a quintessential journalist who probed for the best scoop and pried for the juiciest gossip, an old-style old hand the likes of which we are unlikely to see again. In the new contentious era of geopolitical conflict and geoeconomic tension underpinned by American economic nationalism, Robinson's journalist craft over more than four decades explaining and linking Asia and the West will be sorely missed.
The tyranny of anarchy and what to do
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 21/03/2025
» It is both exciting and alarming to be a student of international affairs as the world is being turned upside down. In just two months, the second administration of President Donald J Trump has sent shockwaves rippling through the international system as the United States pulls back from its role as leader, underwriter, and guardian of the nearly 80-year-old international order that it instrumentally constructed after WWII. In view of the US's portentous withdrawal, relative anarchy in the international system is back with a vengeance, leaving Asean members and smaller states elsewhere to fend for themselves in a self-help geostrategic environment.
Smart geopolitics starts on home front
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 21/02/2025
» According to a longstanding axiom, all politics is local. If so, then smart and crafty geopolitics must start at home with sufficient domestic political stability and consensus about how the country should navigate what is increasingly a turbulent geostrategic chessboard. Put this way, few countries can appreciate the intersection of geopolitics and domestic politics more than Thailand. Its rocky and volatile home front over the past two decades continues to impede and constrain its geostrategic projection.
Trump ready with Asean policy 2.0
Oped, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 21/01/2025
» Last week's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing for Senator Marco Rubio was very insightful, especially regarding comments related to US-Asean relations. Mr Rubio demonstrated knowledge about Asean and the need for flexibility in engaging with the countries in the region. His comments have also calmed surging concerns over a potential tariff hike under the Trump administration. Certainly, he is expected to be confirmed and replace Antony Blinken as Secretary of State.
Consulting the oracles
Business, Published on 02/01/2025
» The direction of external factors in 2025, such as geopolitical conflicts, will be difficult to ascertain. The economies of various countries, including Thailand's key trading partners, will continue to be closely monitored due to political shifts, particularly the United States with the return of Donald Trump as the nation's 47th president.
Ex-PM proposes reforms amid global shifts
News, Poramet Tangsathaporn, Published on 23/11/2024
» Former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has proposed economic reform and suggested Thailand be prepared for geopolitical change.