The Diplomat
Will the environment be the Vietnam government’s downfall?
For years, Tran Thi Nga was subjected to harassment and brutalization by the Vietnamese authorities, the details of which emerged in a fresh Human Rights Watch report published earlier this year. She was finally arrested in January for using the using “the Internet to post ...
Saving Vietnam's floating markets
Amid mighty rivers and dense mangroves, the busy floating markets in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta have long shaped the delta’s well-known “water civilization.” As many as a dozen floating markets still remain along major waterways around the delta, where boats, houses, and markets float upon the ...
The key to successful elections in Timor-Leste: professional security forces
The big day has finally arrived for voters all across Timor-Leste and, for the first time since the restoration of independence in 2002, for Timorese also living in Australia and Portugal. According to the electoral administration body STAE, there are 747,583 Timorese voters registered to ...
Spanning the economic gap between Asia and Latin America
Politically, 2016 was a volatile year. The electoral changes in Europe, North America, and Asia have created uncertainties for international trade and investment in 2017. It’s clear that there’s a growing sense of nationalism and anti-internationalization where the masses feel they are missing out on ...
Deconstructing China’s energy security strategy
Given continued American global naval supremacy, which is unlikely to be challenged successfully in the foreseeable future, Beijing’s highest strategic priority is to ensure energy security by connecting friendly major oil and gas producers to China via pipelines transiting through land routes beyond the effective ...
Farewell to Vo Quy, Vietnam's hero of the environment
Vietnam’s Professor Vo Quy has passed away in Hanoi at age 87. The well-known and well-loved zoologist had a storied career that spanned decades and, even in his 80s, he was still working and busy, as passionate as ever. I met Professor Vo Quy in Hanoi ...
China, Thailand mull joint military production facility
China and Thailand are mulling the possibility of setting up a joint military production facility in the latest sign of an expanding defense relationship between Beijing and one of the United States’ two treaty allies in Southeast Asia. Sino-Thai military cooperation has deepened of late ...
The challenge for Asia's female politicians
Asia is seeing a new wave of successful female politicians, but getting to the top requires hard choices. What a disastrous few months for women in politics. The world started 2016 with the hopes of seeing both the first female UN secretary general and first ...
Changing Mekong currents compound dam anxieties in Southeast Asia
Several factors are disrupting the terrain for investment in large hydropower dams, and governments should take note. The government of Laos officially submitted the Pak Beng Dam to the Mekong River Commission in mid-November and has begun preparatory work around the future dam site. While ...
US Group to boost ASEAN disaster relief capabilities
On November 17, a U.S.based nonprofit inked an agreement with ASEAN to help boost its disaster relief capabilities.As one of the world’s most disaster prone subregions, Southeast Asia has been working on setting up new institutions to strengthen regional capabilities to respond to natural disasters. ...
