• OPINION

  Joe Biden's flawed policy on Myanmar

  Oped, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 23/12/2023

  » As the Israel-Hamas war rages, the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza is grabbing headlines -- as well it should. But another armed conflict, in Myanmar, is also causing mass suffering, with more than 2 million people internally displaced and over a million more streaming into neighbouring Bangladesh, India and Thailand. And it is attracting far less international attention.

• OPINION

  America's Myanmar policy is simply all wrong

  Oped, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 15/07/2023

  » A recent joint statement by US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi "expressed deep concern about the deteriorating situation in Myanmar" and called for a constructive dialogue to aid the country's transition toward an inclusive federal democratic system. Unfortunately, the US-led sanctions policy has undercut this goal and made a bad situation worse.

• OPINION

  Bedlam reigns in Afghanistan and Pakistan

  Oped, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 02/06/2023

  » Afghanistan and Pakistan are sinking deeper into disarray, and the US bears a significant share of the blame. As long as this long-troubled region remains in turmoil, Islamist terrorism will continue to thrive, with grave implications for international security.

• OPINION

  Of debt and bondage with Beijing

  Oped, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 26/11/2022

  » Recently released details of Kenya's 2014 loan agreement with China to finance a controversial railway project have once again highlighted the predatory nature of Chinese lending in developing countries. The contract not only imposed virtually all risk on the borrower (including requiring binding arbitration in China to settle any dispute), but also raised those risks to unmanageable levels (such as by setting an unusually high interest rate). With terms like that, it is no wonder some countries around the world have become ensnared in sovereignty-eroding Chinese debt traps.

• OPINION

  The dramatic fall of the House of Rajapaksa

  News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 14/07/2022

  » For much of nearly two decades, the four Rajapaksa brothers and their sons have run Sri Lanka like a family business -- and a disorderly one, at that. With their grand construction projects and spendthrift ways, they saddled Sri Lanka with unsustainable debts, driving the country into its worst economic crisis since independence. Now, the dynasty has fallen.

• OPINION

  Crippling blow to the global war on terror

  News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 13/09/2021

  » The American-led global war on terror, launched 20 years ago after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks against the United States, was already faltering before President Joe Biden took office. Now it may not recover from the blow delivered by Mr Biden's historic blunder in facilitating the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan. The flag of the world's deadliest terrorists -- responsible for killing over 2,000 US soldiers since 2001 -- flies above Kabul on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

• OPINION

  Beijing's South China Sea grab

  News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 18/12/2018

  » It has been just five years since China initiated its major land reclamation in the South China Sea, and the country has already shifted the territorial status quo in its favour -- without facing any international pushback. The anniversary of the start of its island building underscores the transformed geopolitics in a corridor central to the international maritime order.

• OPINION

  The end of America's China fantasy

  News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 26/10/2018

  » A long-overdue shift in America's China policy is under way. After decades of "constructive engagement" -- an approach that has facilitated China's rise, even as the country has violated international rules and norms -- the United States is now seeking active and concrete counter-measures. But is it too late to rein in a country that has emerged, with US help, as America's main geopolitical rival?

• OPINION

  'Belt and Road' is buckling under scrutiny

  News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 01/10/2018

  » On a recent official visit to China, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad criticised his host country's use of major infrastructure projects -- and difficult-to-repay loans -- to assert its influence over smaller countries. While Dr Mahathir's warnings in Beijing against "a new version of colonialism" stood out for their boldness, they reflect a broader pushback against China's mercantilist trade, investment, and lending practices.

• OPINION

  The world according to Trump, Xi

  News, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 25/05/2018

  » The world's leading democracy, the United States, is looking increasingly like the world's biggest and oldest surviving autocracy, China. By pursuing aggressively unilateral policies that flout broad global consensus, President Donald Trump effectively justifies his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping's longtime defiance of international law, exacerbating already serious risks to the rules-based world order.

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