Showing 1 - 10 of 30
Countries that are in step must trade together
Oped, Published on 14/09/2024
» Donald Trump and Kamala Harris agree on little except a disdain for free trade. Ahead of the 2024 US presidential election, Mr Trump has threatened a 10% across-the-board tariff on imports, while Ms Harris, whose policy positions remain murky, has indicated that she would follow in President Joe Biden's footsteps with "targeted and strategic tariffs". American politicians' free-trade enthusiasm of the 1980s and 1990s has vanished, and this scares other countries, which know that the United States -- despite its wobbles and foibles -- remains the world's most attractive trading partner.
Deportations and walls in the US and Europe
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 31/08/2024
» Fortress America and Festung Europa (Fortress Europe) are just starting to take shape; bare outlines of what they will have grown into ten years from now. But the trend is almost unstoppable, and it will be very ugly when it's finished.
Libya's unending crisis shows need to be prepared
Oped, Published on 29/08/2024
» Who remembers Libya? Who recalls how the US became embroiled in this civil war only then to quickly lose interest? But sadly Americans vividly remember Benghazi and the horrible loss of a US consulate, the death of a respected US diplomat, killing of three security personnel and the throwing of the American flag into the pyres of a failed policy.
Junk carbon offset addiction 'killing the planet'
News, Published on 29/08/2024
» Before This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things was a Taylor Swift song, it was a punch line to a Paula Poundstone joke from the 1980s about how, as a kid, she once knocked a Flintstones glass off a table, making her mother say, "That's why we can't have nice things."
Overdue trial for Tak Bai
Oped, Editorial, Published on 28/08/2024
» The decision by Narathiwat Provincial Court to hear a lawsuit against seven high-ranking officials accused of murdering protesters in the Tak Bai incident two decades ago is a milestone for efforts to eradicate the culture of impunity in Thai society.
Does 'slacktivism' deserve its bad reputation?
Oped, Published on 23/08/2024
» Earlier this year, activists opposing the war in Gaza marched onto the Golden Gate Bridge and Interstate 880 in Oakland. They blocked traffic for hours, some chaining themselves to vehicles or cement-filled drums. Twenty-six were arrested and charged.
The rise and fall of Srettha Thavisin
Oped, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 20/08/2024
» While leaders come and go, they leave behind a legacy that can be mixed, varying from glory to ignominy. Only a few leave nothing much to remember. As for Thailand's 30th prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, it was cursory at best. Overall, it's a good case study on how pomposity and self-adulation affect leadership.
Srettha out, what's next?
Oped, Editorial, Published on 15/08/2024
» Thai politics has again plunged into a precarious position after the Constitutional Court's judges ruled 5:4 that Srettha Thavisin is unfit to be prime minister because he appointed an ex-convict as a cabinet minister.
Deep dive into Indo-Pacific dreamscape
Oped, Vitit Muntarbhorn, Published on 02/08/2024
» Is the term "Indo-Pacific" an illusion? Or is it a defined concept, a geographical configuration, a channel for connectivity, and/or a confining strategy? Perhaps it embodies an all-embracing blend, waiting for the onlooker to dive deep into political undercurrents. It may also be time to move beyond the landscape and the seascape and even leave the dreamscape behind.
Remembering a Southeast Asianist
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 26/07/2024
» It is not often these days to find scholars of Southeast Asia with exceptional breadth and depth, prescience, and commitment who stick to their creed until the end. In the pantheon of such rare scholars, Benedict O'Gorman Anderson, who died in 2015, would have led the way. James C Scott would be right beside him in a distinctly different fashion.