APAC Insider

US President Barack Obama is in South Korea today as part of his nine-day swing through Asia. But most of the commentary is understandably still focused on his visit to China earlier this week. And the emerging consensus seems to be it wasn’t a parti

An interesting bit of news coming in today from Thailand about a ‘showdown’ planned for Bangkok, organised by the country’s so-called Red Shirts, who support ousted former Premier Thaksin ShinawatraAccording to Thailand’s ‘The Nation’ newspaper:’The

Well, I’m glad to know I’m in good company in not Twittering–US President Barack Obama told a town hall style meeting of students in Shanghai yesterday that he doesn’t either (though I’d like to quickly point out that The Diplomat, or more precisely

This weekend saw the annual APEC leaders meeting, and, as expected, trade and climate issues were high on the agenda. Leaders looked to be moving to limit the political damage of any failure to agree a binding climate deal in Copenhagen next month, w

When I talked before about China polishing up its message to the international community, I really didn’t have this in mind:’Invoking Obama’s African heritage and Civil War president Abraham Lincoln, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said T

I got some on-the-ground insights yesterday from one of our contributors in Afghanistan and today I heard from our Pakistan correspondent, Mustafa Qadri, about the mood in Pakistan since the military there launched its offensive in Waziristan. Since

A surprising–and unusual–intervention by the US ambassador to Afghanistan was leaked today, with him apparently warning against sending more US troops to the country over fears of corruption in the Afghan government. The revelation has come as US P

A somewhat bizarre (I don’t think that’s too strong a word here) and certainly provocative photo released by the Cambodian government today. Apparently it’s all happy families on the Cambodian side of the border. Thailand, meanwhile, issued an extrad

I think it’s also worth mentioning US President Barack Obama’s nine-day Asian trip, which starts tomorrow. Frankly, I think US officials need to be careful about overplaying the ‘Obama lived in Asia so he understands it’ card. Yes, he did–for about

The maritime security post proved very timely with news out this afternoon that a South Korean warship has exchanged fire with a North Korean naval vessel. Phil Deans, professor of international affairs at Tokyo’s Temple University and an expert on N

One of the most interesting security issues in Asia over the next decade is going to be maritime security. As our defence correspondent Toshi Yoshihara has written, US analysts seriously underestimated the development of China’s Navy over the past de

Received an email today from the contributor I mentioned last week who is in Cambodia putting together a piece on recent (and he suggests growing) Thai-Cambodian tensions. Or at least that’s where the story is heading now, with Cambodian Prime Minist