Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte’s rise can’t be understood in isolation, argues analyst Richard Javad Heydarian. It has to be situated within a broader context of how populism takes root in… Read more »
“Kleptocracy at its worst” is how US Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently characterized dealings at 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), a heavily indebted state development fund currently under investigation for fraud… Read more »
While authoritarian regimes can show brief flashes of brilliance (remember Sputnik), they’ve proven again and again incapable of sustaining the creativity and innovation necessary for long-term economic success, analyst Michael… Read more »
A Hindu woman from a lower caste has been elected to the Senate for the first time in Pakistan, a Muslim-majority country where religious minorities have long suffered intimidation and… Read more »
The rise of Islamism in Malaysia and Indonesia could have severe consequences for the two states’ societies, political systems, and overall stability, says a leading analyst. Malaysia’s prime minister, Najib… Read more »
Activist Pham Doan Trang (above) said she was held for questioning by security officials for several hours on Saturday over her most recent book Politics for the Masses, which is outlawed… Read more »
China’s relentless rise and its more recent embrace of repressive tactics that recall the Mao era — a process accelerated by President Xi Jinping’s bid to stay in power indefinitely — have… Read more »
In ending presidential term limits, China’s president Xi Jinping – the leader of the unfree world – is ‘thinking global and acting local’, The South China Morning Post’s Nectar Gan… Read more »
A “shocking new report” from Canada’s intelligence service cites China’s domestically-focused propaganda as an example of the “total” information warfare posing an existential threat to Western democratic pluralism. Ever… Read more »
Last year, as Rohingya Muslim men, women and children ran from their burning villages in the western Rakhine state of Myanmar [aka Burma] an alarmed world turned to the internet for… Read more »