Showing 1 - 10 of 1,214
Trump's pressure campaign fails to break Iran
Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 24/04/2026
» TACO! Of course. US President Donald Trump always chickens out, but it's a feature, not a bug. If his threats aren't working, he will generally drop them and try something else.
NACC must try harder
Oped, Editorial, Published on 24/04/2026
» The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), our national graft-busting body, tried and failed on Thursday to win public trust for its controversial ruling clearing Saksayam Chidchob, a former minister from the Bhumjaithai Party (BJT), of a false asset declaration.
Myanmar's robbery of a democracy
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 24/04/2026
» Five long years after Myanmar's military seized power on 1 Feb 2021, what has taken place in recent weeks amounts to a delayed fait accompli. Led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, then commander-in-chief of the armed forces, the coup diverged from its traditional playbook seen in 1962 and 1988, when tanks rolled and the military ruled by brute force. This time, the takeover nearly unravelled amid a nationwide uprising that evolved into a civil war, waged by an armed and determined resistance comprising the civilian-led National Unity Government (NUG), the People's Defence Forces (PDFs), and a constellation of Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs).
How can we future-proof the global economy?
Oped, Mohamed A El-Erian, Published on 23/04/2026
» An uncomfortable reality is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore. The global economy is in a period of "more frequent and violent shocks", as Nobel laureate Michael Spence puts it. Instead of facing isolated and temporary disruptions, we are confronting a structural shift towards unsettling volatility, deepening fragmentation, and a wider dispersion of outcomes for countries, companies, and households. The old world is gone, and virtually everyone risks losing out in the new one. The question is by how much and what to do about it.
Forget births, cut Thai deaths first
Oped, Sergei Scherbov & Vipan Prachuabmoh, Published on 23/04/2026
» Thailand's demographic debate is too often framed as though the country had only one option: raise fertility or accept a shrinking workforce. That view is understandable, but for the next two decades, it is mostly the misaligned policy horizon. If the question is how Thailand can strengthen its workforce before mid-century, the fastest answer is not higher fertility, but rather lower mortality.
Rupture, reform and how to rebuild
Oped, Robert F Godec, Published on 23/04/2026
» The world is teetering on the edge of a cliff. Russia, China, and the United States are using their military and economic power in the ruthless pursuit of power and domination. In doing so, they have ruptured an international system that for 80 years was characterised by rules, institutions, and a measure of cooperation.
Chokepoints expose fragility of our global order
Oped, Todd G Buchholz, Published on 22/04/2026
» Most schoolchildren learn that the Earth is roughly 40,000km around. They do not learn that the global economy depends on just 160 of those kilometres.
Myanmar looks east again in search of legitimacy
Oped, Larry Jagan, Published on 17/04/2026
» Myanmar understands it needs to reach out to the world if it is to end its isolation and roll back the sanctions much of the West has levied against it. To this end, the men in green, now in civilian clothes, are seeking the support of traditional allies -- China and Asean, especially Thailand -- as well as Bangladesh and Pakistan, in an effort to reset foreign policy and regain international acceptance.
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.
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.