Showing 1 - 10 of 31
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.
How to try and negotiate with Donald Trump
Oped, Koichi Hamada, Published on 16/07/2025
» Since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, it has been virtually impossible to keep up with all the extreme measures, incendiary rhetoric, personnel changes, policy reversals, and breaches of rules and norms, from intelligence leaks to defiance of court orders. That is by design: like European fascists in the twentieth century, Mr Trump knows that it is far easier to manipulate and suppress an overwhelmed, divided, and disoriented public than an informed, engaged, and assured one.
Facing down BRICS threat
Oped, Editorial, Published on 14/07/2025
» After slapping a 36% tariff on Thai exports to the United States, President Donald Trump recently warned BRICS nation members may face an additional 10% tariff, citing what he call their "anti-American policies".
US strikes on Iran nuke plants risk backfiring
Oped, Brahma Chellaney, Published on 26/06/2025
» Israel and the United States have dealt punishing blows to Iran's nuclear infrastructure. "Operation Rising Lion" and "Operation Midnight Hammer" have been portrayed as precision strikes that will stop the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme in its tracks. But whatever the bombings might have achieved tactically, they risk forfeiting strategically, as Iran is now more convinced than ever that nuclear weapons are the only way to deter future aggression and ensure the regime's survival.
Let's join the Santa Cruz Rebellion!
Oped, Joe Mathews, Published on 02/06/2025
» I want to move Santa Cruz to join the rebellion. Wanna come along?
Court image in the dock
Oped, Editorial, Published on 24/08/2024
» It is unusual for Thais to criticise courts and jurists. But such anxiety comes with good reason. Thai law levies hefty penalties on those found to be in contempt of court -- imprisonment of one to seven years and fines of 2,000-14,000 baht.
Thai politics has turned upside down
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 23/08/2024
» The rise of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and the return -- and re-entry, of her father, Thaksin Shinawatra, have turned Thai politics upside down. On the surface, Mr Thaksin still dominates Thai politics nearly 20 years after he was deposed by a military coup and exiled for most of that period. This time, his political power and influence are being exercised through his daughter Ms Paetongtarn. As the Shinawatra clan has been coopted by its former establishment adversaries, the past two decades of periodic elections, street protests, two military coups, two constitutions, and multiple judicial bans on political parties and elected politicians have entered a new chapter.
Iran's theocracy simply cannot go on forever
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 09/07/2024
» 'I have heard that people's zeal and interest is higher than in the first round [of Iran's presidential election]," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranian TV just before the second round of voting on Sunday. "It is wrong to assume those who abstained in the first round are opposed to Islamic rule."
The world wins when women win
Oped, Indermit Gill & Tea Trumbic, Published on 08/03/2024
» In May 1988, Alejandra Arévalo became the first female geologist to enter an underground mine in Chile. In doing so, she defied a popular myth: that a woman brings bad luck by venturing into a mine. She also broke the law. At the time, Chilean women were forbidden to work in underground mining or in any other job that "exceeded their strength or put at risk their physical or moral condition." Ms Arévalo's defiance helped spark a revolution. By 1993, the restrictions on women in mining had been abolished; and by 2022, women represented 15% of the Chilean mining workforce, a threefold increase since 2007.
Last woman standing: Nikki Haley for Potus
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 24/02/2024
» 'I refuse to quit. I feel no need to kiss the ring," said Nikki Haley defiantly.