All across the Philippines mounds of plastic pollution of varied sizes, can be found spread out across the lush, green vegetation that makes the Philippines so beautiful. Like a multicolored wound …
Next week President of the United States Donald Trump will meet with supreme leader of North Korea Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, Vietnam, to undertake the second summit between the …
Many analysts have seen China’s rapidly growing naval power as a sign that Australia needs to rethink its defence strategy in the Asia-Pacific region. Indeed, China has made remarkable strides …
China’s economic expansion into the Pacific Islands region raises critical questions for both the islands and Australia. What happens if infrastructure loans by Chinese banks and authorised state enterprises to …
Tom Fowdy, a postgraduate student of Chinese studies at Oxford University, gives his take on this week’s meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un… Despite fears and upsets, the …
“There is a real prospect of securing a peace regime on the Korean peninsula, however, the narrative Kim Jong-un had unilaterally capitulated to American demands in fear of the Trump …
“Kim Jong-un’s shift towards diplomacy should not be interpreted as a capitulation to American demands, but a calculated strategy in dealing with President Trump’s bellicose approach. Utilising well-versed tactics of …
This week, we reported how the government’s socioeconomic planning agency announced that the Philippines could become an ‘upper-middle class’ country by the end of next year. Here, Dwayne Krasko explains why he …
For almost five months, 21 million people in the southern Philippines have been living under martial law. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in the province of Mindanao in …
It’s been difficult to figure out the logic of Kim Jong Un’s recent nuclear grandstanding — many simply dismiss his actions as either madness or a deathwish. So, to make …
On August 8, 1967, foreign ministers from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines signed the Bangkok Declaration to create the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN, as it …
In this contributed editorial by Richard Jalkebro of Scotland’s University of St Andrews, the author argues that while the war on drugs continues, the nation’s fights on other fronts – …
Many smokers are (perhaps not very successfully) holding their breath to see exactly how the new smoking ban will pan out. Will it be like the ban on plastic bags …
You’d need a heart of stone not to pity President Duterte right now — he’s fighting three wars, and he can’t possibly win any of them. First, there’s his war …
The first week of July is not normally one that brings great events in world politics. Around that time, the northern hemisphere normally shifts into summer holiday mode. Recently, this …
Tom Smith, a lecturer in International Relations at the UK’s University of Portsmouth, gives his assessment of President Duterte as he passes his first year in office. The views of …
In the past decade, more than 800 journalists have been killed in the course of their work according to UNESCO, while hundreds more have been assaulted, imprisoned or harassed. The …
The president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has become one of the world’s most notorious politicians. He revels in being referred to by nicknames such as “Duterte Harry”, “The Punisher”, …
A long-awaited military campaign is underway to retake the key northern Syrian city of Raqqa from the so-called Islamic State (IS). With the group apparently losing territory and its de …
The South China Sea is a volatile place – or rather, its politics are. China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have been fighting over this azure stretch of …
Allegations about Qatar funding terrorism are nothing new. However, the sudden severing of ties by other Gulf and Middle Eastern states is the most serious consequence of these allegations so …
I think somebody needs to remind President Duterte that although he is head of state of the Philippines, it’s not ‘all about him’ and his fragile ego. Yesterday, for example, …
President Duterte has announced that Mindanao needs this very strict control of the population — with corresponding reduced civil liberties — because of the violence in Marawi City. Hmmm… This …
A lot of column inches have been written about the rise of populist politicians in the west, it seems a profound shift towards authoritarianism in Southeast Asia has been largely …
Call me cynical, but aren’t Boracay’s new no-drinking zones (to combat litter, apparently… seriously?) just another ploy by the most overrated part of the Philippines to grab more money from dumb drunk …
In-house police investigators have concluded that the jail cell carefully hidden behind a hinged bookcase at a Manila police station was not “secret” — and has cleared officers involved of …