APAC Insider

Well, as educational and informative as it has been for me (and I hope at least some of our readers) to try and cover the whole of the Asia-Pacific area in one blog, it’s time for me to move on to something a little different, so this will be my last

There’s been a flurry of reports the past couple of weeks suggesting that North Korea is finally ready to return to the Six-party talks on its denuclearisation. According to the Korea Herald this ‘willingness’ to reconsider is based largely on the co

The Committee to Protect Journalists has just released its report for 2009, and noted last year was the deadliest so far for members of the media, with 71 deaths in cases where the motive has been confirmed.This was largely due to the single attack i

As I’ve mentioned before, managing a country the size of India from the centre is no easy task. But one of the main ongoing challenges to central government authority took a particularly troubling turn with an incident Monday.Indian authorities have

The major US-led offensive in Afghanistan against militants in Helmand Province is, according to reports, going well–military at least. This probably shouldn’t come as a surprise–militants were never going to offer much resistance in a stand-up fig

The newly-launched offensive in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province has raised some interesting issues about the importance of soft power, something that the coalition forces still need to master in the fight against the Taliban.The BBC has an interesting

How do you reassure supporters of your beaten electoral opponent, especially if many of them hail from a minority that you have vowed to help reintegrate into society, that their voice will get a sympathetic hearing? Presumably not by having the army

An interesting piece in The Times newspaper yesterday about the apparent deterioration in US-China relations.’Now almost 55% of those questioned for Global Times, a state-run newspaper, agree that “a cold war will break out between the US and China”.

As the New York Times reports:’Tensions crept up another notch last month, after China announced plans to develop tourism in the Paracels [Islands], which the Chinese military has controlled since 1974. It was an inauspicious start to what the two go

It seems irresistible for some defeated candidates to cry foul when an election doesn’t go their way, and Sri Lanka’s main opposition candidate is no exception.As Sergei DeSilva-Ranasinghe, who wrote an election preview piece for The Diplomat last we

In the meantime, though, the presidential race is shaping up to be a battle between big money and big name recognition, with the country’s wealthiest politician running just behind the son of its beloved late former leader Corazon Aquino, who helped

Reuters reports that South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has ruled out giving any handouts to entice North Korea to a summit in the middle of this year, for what would be only the third such meeting between the two technically at war nations.He’s ab

The BBC’s three top Asia-Pacific stories this morning were all about the country, and all addressed themes that will undoubtedly be recurring for the foreseeable future – media restrictions, defence and human rights.A report by the International Fede

The most interesting discussions prompted by the summit on Afghanistan’s future held in London yesterday were centred around suggestions of negotiating with the Taliban. Although both sides are understandably wary about discussing details, a UN offic

We have an interesting piece coming up tomorrow by ‘War is Boring’ blogger and defence analyst David Axe who looks at China’s recent missile exo-atmospheric test and what it could mean for the region (China is only the second country to succeed in su

Having talked a couple of days ago about military restraint between prickly neighbours (in that case Cambodia and Thailand), and a day after we flagged the west coast of the Korean Peninsula as a possible flashpoint, North and South Korea have exchan

Japan’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan saw a potential door close on one possible way out of the problems it’s having over the relocation of a US Marine base in Okinawa.The DPJ is having a real headache deciding whether to follow through with a 200

as has our Southeast Asia correspondent Luke Hunt. The potential dangers were made clear in a clash between the two countries’ militaries early Sunday near the disputed site of Preah Vihar Temple.Thai Prime Minister Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva p

The Diplomat contributor Sergei DeSilva is finishing up a piece for us on the aftermath of the Sri Lankan government’s victory over the Tamil Tigers ahead of the election taking place next week.But in the meantime, it seems, the government is still s

Following the militant attacks on Kabul earlier this week, I asked Animesh Roul, Executive Director (Research) of the Society for the Study of Peace and Conflict in New Delhi and a regular contributor to Counterterrorism Blog what kind of impact the

One of the debates that’s been going on among readers of Minxin Pei’s piece ‘China’s not a Superpower’ over on our APAC 2020 feature has been how exactly to define a superpower. Is it just about military or economic strength, for example, or do you n

The audacious attacks claimed by the Taliban yesterday in Kabul, targeting shopping centres, government buildings and a hotel, claimed several lives, with several dozen more people injured. But the psychological impact is likely to be far more powerf

I talked at the time about the massacre that claimed dozens of lives in the southern Philippines in November. One of the inevitable consequences of the 24-hour news cycle is that once the horrific pictures have been screened and the death toll finali

China’s Internet is open. Except when it isn’t.  China’s foreign ministry made the first claim Thursday following Google’s suggestion this week that it might pull out of China. But as I’ve said previously, the conflicting reality to these statem