Asia Unbound
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Australia Wants to Boost Economic Ties With India
As the United States places emphasis on the “Indo-Pacific”—a term echoed by Japan, India, Australia, and others—the framework of the “Quad,” a consultation involving these four democracies in the region, has come to the fore. Australia-India ties are weaker than the bilateral ties between other Quad countries, so this is a relationship that has ample room to grow. Read More
Featured
July 5, 2018
China
Being a woman is hard, but being a woman in China is getting harder. China’s rapidly aging population and gender imbalance have led to looming demographic and societal issues, and women are caught in the crosshairs.
Read MoreJuly 2, 2018
Southeast Asia
In early May, Malaysia was stunned by the victory, in national elections, of the opposition coalition, led by Mahathir Mohamad and essentially (from jail), longtime opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim. Although some journalists had, in the run-up to the election, noted that the opposition’s support appeared to be cresting, in the wake of years of massive corruption allegations against former Prime Minister Najib tun Razak and his allies, the win still came largely as a shock.
Read MoreJune 29, 2018
Southeast Asia
Over the past decade, Southeast Asia’s democratic decline has accelerated, and in the past two years the recession has picked up notable speed. With the exception of Malaysia, which shocked the region with the defeat of the governing coalition in May, Southeast Asia’s hybrid states are backsliding, while its most authoritarian states are becoming more autocratic. Even Indonesia and Timor-Leste, the region’s most solid democracies, have become shakier in the past two years.
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