Showing 1 - 10 of 59
From conflict to shared prosperity
News, David Jay Green, Published on 10/02/2026
» The news from the front line, the border between Cambodia and Thailand, has a depressing familiarity. Another ceasefire is agreed upon, but it is accompanied by hostile statements from officials of both governments, and, in the past, such statements have led to aggressive action by one or both military forces. This opens the door to armed combat. People are killed or injured, property and infrastructure damaged, and people's livelihoods disrupted. We need to break this cycle; we need real peace.
A year of shocks, but Thailand endures
News, Kavi Chongkittavorn, Published on 30/12/2025
» The year 2025 is not just your typical annus horribilis. Some may say that an appropriate term to describe the year is "hell on earth," or narok bon din in Thai, when many bad things happen all at once.
Ceasefire accord offers fragile hope
Editorial, Published on 28/12/2025
» With the signing of a ceasefire accord by the defence ministers of Thailand and Cambodia, the borders were to be quiet as of noon yesterday. The immediate challenge now is how to sustain peace between the two neighbours that share an almost 800‑km‑long border.
Reckless decision
News, Postbag, Published on 27/12/2025
» Re: "Talks fail to secure truce", (BP, Dec 23).
Domestic drivers of bilateral conflict
News, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 19/12/2025
» The latest flare-up and intensification of the armed conflict between Thailand and Cambodia should be understood less as a new crisis and more as a resumption of a bilateral clash that erupted in late July.
China's bluster over Japan's Taiwan remarks
News, John J Metzler, Published on 05/12/2025
» Beijing has gone rhetorically ballistic over comments by Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could constitute "a situation threatening Japan's survival" that thus could trigger a military response. Her statement poses uncharacteristically tough talk from Tokyo at a time when tensions are running high in the Far East.
Asean must grab its rare-earth shot
News, Imran Khalid, Published on 22/11/2025
» US President Donald Trump's return to Southeast Asia last month felt like a rerun -- tariffs, tough talk, and televised deals. But this time, he left behind more than headlines. From Kuala Lumpur to Hanoi, Mr Trump inked trade pacts promising tariff relief on US exports in exchange for joint ventures in mining and refining the rare-earth minerals that power the world's clean-tech boom.
Addicted to 'ya dom'
Oped, Postbag, Published on 06/11/2025
» Re: "Inhaler fuss 'a lesson'", (Opinion, Nov 3).
Flawed Asean needs to regain footing
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 10/10/2025
» Nearly six decades after its founding, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) finds itself back where it began -- divided, uncertain, and vulnerable to the influence of major powers. Once hailed as a model for regional cooperation in the developing world, Asean now faces a crisis of purpose. Unless it can rediscover the unity and collective way forward that defined its early decades, Southeast Asia's flagship institution risks slipping into irrelevance.
Thai-Cambodian feud is Asean's worst
Oped, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, Published on 15/08/2025
» The border dispute and consequent military conflict between Cambodia and Thailand in recent weeks have become Asean's worst crisis in its 58 years of existence. Ironically, it was an intra-regional war between Indonesia and Malaysia that gave rise to Asean in 1967, but now an intra-Asean military clash is undermining the Southeast Asian organisation's core reason for being and its main claim to credibility and prominence. Unless Asean, under Malaysia as its rotational chair this year, moves fast to contain the bilateral dispute and reinforce a delicate ceasefire agreement, Southeast Asia will be looked upon increasingly as a region and less as an organisation of member states.