Showing 1 - 10 of 32
Asean's regroup requires deep reforms
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 17/10/2025
» If Asean's 58 years thus far have been about resilience and playing a central organising role in promoting regional security and stability, its next decade will determine whether the Southeast Asian bloc can adapt and remain relevant. After the crises in Myanmar and along the Thai-Cambodian border, Asean's credibility has never been more in doubt. To regain its effectiveness as Southeast Asia's one and only agency, Asean needs to move away from the ritualistic diplomacy of mundane meetings to far-reaching reforms that chart new ways of making things work.
Clock ticks as plastic talks drag on
Oped, Pichmol Rugrod, Published on 13/08/2025
» This week in Geneva, negotiators from around the world are gathered for the fifth session of the Global Plastics Treaty -- known as INC 5.2. It is an intergovernmental process aimed at finding solutions to the plastic pollution crisis. Yet, more than a week in, progress toward a strong and binding agreement remains painfully slow. As the clock ticks, our window to act is rapidly closing.
Building the next generation of public institutions
Oped, Geoff Mulgan, Published on 28/02/2025
» Public institutions worldwide are in crisis. Trust in them is declining, and US President Donald Trump's administration, working hand in glove with the world's richest man, Elon Musk, view them as enemies that need to be dismantled. In the face of funding cuts and geopolitical fragmentation, multilateral organisations look weaker than ever.
How China and Japan's values 'differ'
Oped, Philip J Cunningham, Published on 05/12/2024
» Malaysia's former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad famously saluted "Asian values" citing "diffidence" as one of the characteristics that ostensibly made Asians different, though he did so in an arrogant, attention-grabbing kind of way. More successful was his "Look East Policy", (which, from the geographic confines of Malaysia is actually the Philippines) and there was no mistaking that it was Japan that Mr Mahathir had in mind, with China hovering somewhere out of focus in the background.
Treaty a chance to solve plastic crisis
Oped, Salisa Traipipitsiriwat and Penchom Saetang, Published on 21/11/2024
» Plastic pollution is a massive problem that needs to be solved collectively at the global level.
Beware of Big Tech steering AI rules
Oped, Peter G. Kirchschläger, Published on 04/09/2024
» Last October, the European Commission adopted a new roadmap to fight drug trafficking and organised crime, one of the most serious security threats facing the bloc. For obvious reasons, European Union policymakers did not invite cartel members to help design and develop this strategy; asking for input from criminal networks would have only made it easier for them to continue operating with impunity.
Asia corporate giants feel the heat
Oped, Sachiko Suzuki, Published on 02/07/2024
» Companies in Asia have been getting away with disclosing the bare minimum on managing the escalating financial risks due to climate change. But big international investors are ramping up pressure on Japan's three so-called megabanks Mizuho Financial Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) as well as one of the country's largest electricity producers, Chubu Electric Power.
US must reform antitrust and patent laws now
Oped, Mordecai Kurz, Published on 09/02/2024
» When the United States enacted the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890, Senator John Sherman offered a famous justification: "If we will not endure a king as a political power, we should not endure a king over the production, transportation, and sale of any of the necessities of life. If we would not submit to an emperor, we should not submit to an autocrat of trade, with power to prevent competition and to fix the price of any commodity".
Subsidise habitat
Oped, Postbag, Published on 09/12/2023
» Re: "Jumbos raid local farms", (BP, Dec 8) & "Cabinet okays B8bn package for sugarcane farmers", (Business, Dec 5).
Would technology-enabled communism work?
Oped, Daron Acemoglu, Published on 30/06/2023
» Friedrich von Hayek is best known for his influential 1944 polemic The Road to Serfdom. But his most celebrated work in economics is "The Use of Knowledge in Society", a rather short article on how society uses and acquires dispersed information about economic fundamentals such as preferences, priorities, and productivity.