The British International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has hosted the “Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore since 2002. It is billed as “Asia’s premier security summit,” all while being almost entirely Western-centric in agenda and design. To help illustrate this, since the format was created, the first plenary meeting has always been centered around the US […]
Two recent events, both overshadowed by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, help illustrate how the same problematic aspects of Western foreign policy driving the Ukrainian conflict are hard at work in provoking conflict with yet another global power, China. Western complaints about an alleged naval base China is accused of building in Cambodia and an […]
Recent general elections in The Philippines appear to signal the island nation’s continued but gradual move out from under US subordination and its rise with the rest of Asia as China emerges as both a regional and global superpower. With Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. set to become the next president along with his running mate, […]
The COVID-19 pandemic, which swept the world in 2020, hit all sectors of the economy, but tourism was possibly hit the hardest. Tourism was the first to suffer from quarantine restrictions, as it is directly dependent on the freedom of international communication and yet is not a strategically important industry for most states. However, there […]
The recently held US-ASEAM summit in Washington was meant to serve what an official of the Biden administration called the need for “step[ing] up our [the US] game in Southeast Asia” against China. The underlying logic of this politics of increasing US strategic engagement with ASEAN is a more strategic realignment of the latter’s foreign […]
Not only has the state of the all-round crisis in which Sri Lanka found itself in March not “resolved” but, as recent events in the country show, it has become increasingly acute. Apparently, it is no longer an alarmist exaggeration to define the situation as “total chaos” by which this condition is assessed in China, that […]
US Indo-Pacific commander Admiral John Aquilino has recently complained about China’s militarization of the South China Sea. He has accused China of placing anti-aircraft and anti-ship systems along with other military facilities on islands scattered throughout the South China Sea. The Guardian in an article titled, “China has fully militarized three islands in South China […]
As Russia’s special operations continue in Ukraine so does the West’s propaganda war against it. The propaganda is particularly effective but also particularly predictable in terms of who will be drawn in by it and become hysterical because of it. This includes right-wing extremists from across the Western world but also the many US-sponsored “pro-democracy” […]
The elimination of Russian media across the West and to a greater extent from across US-based social media platforms used worldwide, is a stark demonstration of the power the West still wields within global information space. It is a wake-up call for nations around the globe regarding the threat of leaving a nation’s information space […]
China has been actively pushing the US out of its place as “world hegemon” for a number of years now. Through soft power – lucrative trade agreements, economic aid, generous loans and investments – the PRC gains partners and allies across the world. The scale of China’s “offensive” is such that the PRC is cooperating […]
