Showing 1 - 10 of 1,194
Countering the fallacy of the buffer zone
Oped, Daoud Kuttab, Published on 10/04/2026
» Territorial buffers rarely, if ever, deliver the peace and security their advocates promise. After the collapse of the USSR, Ukraine was seen as a neutral cordon between Russia and Nato. Instead, it became a zone of increasingly fierce geopolitical contention, followed by open war.
Asean banks face climate pressure
Oped, Rachel Ho, Published on 08/04/2026
» The global oil and gas crisis is worsening. Amid the Middle East war, the central banks of countries in Southeast Asia must address a perfect storm of rising fuel prices, cost-of-living pressures, and worsening impacts of climate disasters.
Fanatics, an obsessive, and a belligerent fool
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/04/2026
» We don't have to look very far to find a useful historical analogy for the current crisis in the Middle East. In 1967, Egypt closed the Strait of Tiran to Israeli ships, and Israel replied with a surprise air attack that destroyed almost the entire Egyptian air force on the ground.
Can alliances with the US be replaced?
Oped, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 07/04/2026
» The increasingly loud debate over the future of alliances -- after reports that the US could scale back or even withdraw from Nato -- is nerve-racking. It has caused alarm across Europe and in Southeast Asia, another node of the US alliance network. Even without any official decision, remarks by US President Donald Trump on social media were enough to shake already fragile US alliances. The question now frequently asked by Thai policymakers is: What comes next if alliances weaken?
Will Kharg Island decide the future of US alliances?
Oped, Carla Norrlöf, Published on 03/04/2026
» The key question about Iran's energy-export terminal on Kharg Island is not whether the United States can seize or disable it. Of course it can.
Our schools must do more to protect kids
Oped, Karnjana Karnjanatawe, Published on 03/04/2026
» Recent disturbing cases of child sexual abuse again show how our education system has failed to keep children safe at school. The new education minister must prioritise school safety and enforce safeguards to protect the next generation.
Russia is winning the Iran War
Oped, Chris Patten, Published on 02/04/2026
» While the rationale for US President Donald Trump's Iran war is difficult to decipher, its main beneficiary is far easier to identify: Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Several bad options for US in Iran standoff
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 01/04/2026
» The Iranians know they have won, but President Trump doesn't get it yet. He's still at the stage of counting up the US and Israeli air strikes and assuming that those numbers mean a US victory is possible. But five gets you ten that the Iranians are already thinking about nuclear weapons. Not their own, which don't exist. America's.
US must let IAEA do its job in Iran
Oped, Helen Clark, Published on 31/03/2026
» The US-Israeli war on Iran has already destabilised the global economy and the geopolitics of the Middle East. Even more alarming, recent reporting shows that US President Donald Trump is deploying ground troops, a prospect that immediately evokes memories of past failed interventions -- from Vietnam to Iraq -- with their high costs in American and especially local lives.
Selective outrage will not end the war in Iran
Oped, Jayati Ghosh, Published on 27/03/2026
» Few United Nations Security Council resolutions have been as one-sided as its recent condemnation of Iran's "egregious attacks" on regional neighbours such as Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Leaving little room for interpretation, it describes those attacks as "a breach of international law and a serious threat to international peace and security".