Showing 1 - 10 of 12
The scramble for the world's critical minerals
Oped, Rabah Arezki & Rick van der Ploeg, Published on 07/08/2025
» The world's superpowers have developed a seemingly insatiable appetite for the critical minerals that are essential to the ongoing energy and digital transitions, including rare-earth metals (for semiconductors), cobalt (for batteries), and uranium (for nuclear reactors). The International Energy Agency forecasts that demand for these minerals will more than quadruple by 2040 for use in clean-energy technologies alone. But, in their race to control these vital resources, China, Europe, and the United States risk causing serious harm to the countries that possess them.
When non-interference becomes policy
Oped, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 20/05/2025
» What US President Donald Trump said in Saudi Arabia on May 14 resonates very well in Thailand. Last week in Riyadh, Mr Trump reiterated that the Middle East had changed because "local people did it", and not because "Western countries interfered and told you how to live or run your countries".
As US retreats, will it be China's world or Europe's?
Oped, Orville Schell, Published on 11/04/2025
» 'Today we're in one era, and tomorrow we'll be in a different era," President Donald Trump loudly proclaimed from the White House Rose Garden as he hiked US tariffs to their highest level since 1909. "No one's done anything quite like this!"
Agent of insurrection Trump's 'Cultural Revolution'
Oped, Orville Schell, Published on 21/02/2025
» When US President Donald Trump's factotum, JD Vance, held forth on Europe's "threat from within" at the recent Munich Security Conference, his audience was left struggling to make sense of America's confounding new approach to foreign policy. Chinese President Xi Jinping, for his part, has been relatively silent since Mr Trump's return to the White House -- but that doesn't mean he is any less vexed by what it portends. Nor could he have been reassured by Mr Trump's brazen response to a question last October about what he would do if Mr Xi blockaded Taiwan: "Xi knows I'm f***ing crazy!"
Time to end impunity
Oped, Editorial, Published on 20/08/2024
» Gen Prawit "Uncle Pom" Wongsuwon has again attracted unwanted media attention, this time for slapping the head of a female reporter.
The general's watches
Oped, Editorial, Published on 27/04/2024
» The latest assets declaration report of former deputy prime minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwon -- an ex-junta "big brother" -- released by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) reminds us of his notorious watch saga and how the anti-graft agency failed the public in clearing the controversy.
When legal battles shake democracies
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 10/08/2023
» Three of the world's biggest democracies, all with past, present and/or prospective leaders facing prison at the same time. In the end, it's the courts that decide.
Presidents Putin and Xi's imperium of grievance
Oped, Orville Schell, Published on 10/03/2022
» Soon after the news of Russia's invasion of Ukraine flashed across my computer screen, I received an email that seemed to mark another milestone in the dismantling of the old global order. Having tickets to attend a Vienna Philharmonic concert at New York's Carnegie Hall, I received a "Customer Service Announcement" reporting that Valery Gergiev -- described as "a friend and prominent supporter of President Vladimir V Putin of Russia" -- would no longer be conducting the orchestra. Many other orchestras have since cut ties with Gergiev as well.
Stop funding environmental crime
Oped, Simon Zadek, Published on 09/02/2022
» One of the most profitable global criminal enterprises is one you might not expect. It is crimes like illegal fishing and logging, waste trafficking, and trade in wildlife. And the financial sector is reaping huge rewards from these assaults against the natural environment.
Cops need to clean up act
Oped, Editorial, Published on 26/08/2021
» Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and the Royal Thai Police (RTP) chief deserve praise for their fast reaction to the shocking case of a group of policemen accused of murdering a drug suspect with a plastic bag. Yet they need to do more than just arrest the culprits and put them on trial.