Search result for: "Geopolitics"

HONG KONG, China: A century ago, American humorist Robert Benchley quipped that there are “two classes of people in the world; those who constantly divide the people of the world into two classes, and those who do not.” Thomas Parks does not.

LONDON, UK: From August 22nd to 24th, BRICS leaders are set to convene in South Africa, marking a pivotal moment for this loosely knit coalition of major non-Western nations including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. 

WASHINGTON, U.S.-On Thursday, a drone attack on a U.S. base in northeastern Syria served as the latest reminder that the United States remains at war in Syria and U.S. personnel are at risk. 

WASHINGTON, U.S.--Two stunning explosions deep below the Baltic Sea last month set off one of the greatest whodunits in the long history of US-Russia hostility.

BEIJING, China--Political polarization will continue to deepen and political violence is likely to happen during the following election, Chinese experts predicted as far-right incumbent Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his leftist rival former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are set for a runoff election at the end of this month after a tighter than expected first round.

SINGAPORE CITY, Singapore--When Russia invaded Ukraine, it took itself off the map of Eurasian transport corridors linking China and Europe. At the same time, it breathed new life into moribund routes that would allow goods to travel across the Eurasian landmass without traversing Russia. It also opened the door to greater Russian connectivity with the Middle East and South and Southeast Asia.

MELBOURNE, Australia--If the ancient Greeks are to be believed, the rivalry between the current great powers, America and China, will lead to war. American political scientist Graham Allison popularised the situation as “Thucydides’s Trap”. 

WASHINGTON, U.S.--Is the U.S. strategy of reducing Russian and (especially) Chinese influence in Southeast Asia working? If the recent summit with ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) leaders in Washington is any indication, the answer has to be a no.

NEW DELHI, India--Exactly nine days before a giant mushroom cloud rose above the great plains of Lop Nur, signalling China’s arrival as a nuclear power, officials in the Pentagon issued a terse warning: “They are now ready to test.” In the spring of 1964, United States U2 spy-planes had begun operating secret missions—never acknowledged by India—from the Intelligence Bureau’s station at Charbatia, in Odisha. Flying at over 21,000 metres, well out of reach of air-defence systems, the U2s provided the US with a god’s-eye view of China’s most treasured secrets.

WASHINGTON, U.S.-In early December, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Taiwan is “a critical node within the first island chain (in the Western Pacific), anchoring a network of U.S. allies and partners … that is critical to the region’s security and critical to the defense of vital U.S. interests in the Indo-Pacific.”

BANGKOK, Thailand--The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was formally created by the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippine, Singapore, and Thailand, on the 8th August 1967.