Japan’s foreign policy in Asia is not driven by a values-oriented diplomacy. Overall, Tokyo downplays human rights and democratic values in favor of maintaining trade ties and securing geo-strategic advantage. It is thus a values-free […]
Prior to 2018, Malaysian politics were marked by regime and political stasis. Ruling coalitions headed by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party dominated politics in the country for an unbroken 61 years, making it […]
Myanmar’s abounding despair gave way to euphoria when the National League for Democracy (NLD) led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory in the 2015 general elections. Another landslide in 2020 suggested […]
To sever the conundrums of a decentered regional literature speculated around and astride the national sympathies of culture bearers stemming from the notional question that pushes literature as literatures, or literatures as but a primal […]
The question of China’s rise has received a great deal of policy and academic attention. The growing interest on this issue is understandably concerned with both Beijing’s economic success, its ability to expand internationally, and […]
“The first of these is the challenge of establishing a united Malaysian nation with a sense of common and shared destiny. This must be a nation at peace with itself, territorially, and ethnically integrated, living […]
In the past few years, many countries around the world have put priority on the tourism sector, and increasingly the term ‘Halal tourism’ had become more commonplace. According to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), […]
Since 2004, the Thai government has implemented security laws in regards to Thailand’s Deep South. These comprised of Martial Law, the 1914 The Emergency Decree on Public Administration in Emergency Situations, 2005, and the Internal […]
The image of Indonesia as an agrarian nation, a modern country whose agricultural roots should not be forgotten, remains popular in Indonesian political discourses. Cliché as it may be, Indonesian politicians embrace this notion – […]
My journey into Thailand’s deep south began in late 2005 with a minivan journey from the southern Thai city of Hat Yai to Pattani. I was living in Malaysia at that time, and about to […]
This paper presents a “trimmed” version of the “Media Co-optation Toolbox” crafted by Freedom House to explain how President Rodrigo Duterte has kept Philippine mainstream media organizations in check by employing economic/legal and extra-legal and […]
“The big thing that we know from John Stuart Mill is that democracy is government by discussion, and, if you make discussion fearful, you are not going to get a democracy, no matter how you […]
Throughout the Covid-19 crisis, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and other high-ranking ministers of the Singapore government have repeatedly expressed gratitude to migrant construction workers for their role in building the gleaming city-state. These low-paid […]
Be sure to fear the teacher, young one, his cane is sure and keen Scared was I of its stinging strike once that pinching scythe I’d seen (Sunthorn Phu, 1840-1842/2008: 85). Being unregulated, punishment in […]
Air pollution is becoming an even more serious problem for many countries in Southeast Asia. Thailand is now experiencing the smoke haze “seasonally”, especially in the northern and central parts of the country. Singapore and […]
From Brunei’s vantage point, the security outlook in 2019 was relatively peaceful and optimistic on the region’s capabilities in managing security challenges. While relations between ASEAN and other parts of the world has been progressing, […]
Titles: Las Vegas in Singapore: Violence, Progress and Crisis of Nationalist Modernity Author: Lee Kah-Wee Publisher: NUS Press, 2018 This is an ambitious book that seeks to tell the social history of gambling in Singapore […]
Non-government organizations (NGOs) contribute a vital role in resolving international issues as they can influence policy agendas, behavior, and the interests of the state and be a voice of the marginalized peoples (Makoba, 2002). They […]
In 1954, the war was waging in the Indochina Region. Vietnam and Laos were at war for independence against the French, while in Cambodia, an uprising against the Royals was imminent. Eventually, these countries would […]
It has been generally acknowledged that international and regional trade agreements are one of the most significant features of international globalisation that lead to several more problems regarding international business transactions in the 21st century. […]
Established in 1913, Singapore’s Communicable Disease Centre (CDC, formerly known as Middleton Hospital), was long in the making. Its gestation over two decades highlighted the question of government responsibility – colonial or municipal – for […]
The peace process between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) has been going on and off for thirty-two (32) years now, ironically to resolve an armed […]
Democracy’s durability (and desirability) is a topic of debate worldwide, and the conversation is no less contentious in Southeast Asia. It is, of course, a region that has experienced numerous transitions toward and away from […]
Contemporary counterinsurgencies obscure state violence behind technocratic jargon. The term ‘force multiplier’ connotes the recruitment and use of militias as a means of thickening a thinly stretched military’s presence across insurgent zones. In reality, such […]
Long before the concept of ASEAN which established treaties, the ancient kingdoms of Siam and Luzon had been engaged in trading as well as sending troops by the latter to fight the Burmese during the […]
This October, the OTOP Nawatwithi project began to fully operate, as the latest avatar of the now famous OTOP policy initiated in 2001 by then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Conceived as a poverty alleviation scheme, a […]
Social media has been one of the greatest phenomena of the past decade, it is present in many aspects of the daily life and it has, inevitably, interacted with the political realm. The debate on […]
Since Simon Anholt (1998, 395), an independent policy advisor, first coined the term ‘nation branding’ in the late 1990s and proposed that nations, like products, can be branded and marketed through the use of commercial […]
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