Pakistan, often in the headlines for terrorism, coups and poverty, has developed something else in recent years: a burgeoning middle class that is fueling economic growth and bolstering a fragile… Read more »
The resurgence of authoritarian powers and the emergence of “populist and nationalist forces” in democratic states have prompted a deterioration of democracy and growing threats to civil liberties, U.S.-based watchdog… Read more »
If democracy has an advantage over authoritarianism, it is that the struggles of interest, power, and ego that are the unavoidable stuff of human life take place in the open,… Read more »
Hun Sen, Cambodia’s prime minister of 32 years’ standing, has experienced the benevolent embrace of both the west and China. But there is no doubt over Mr Hun Sen’s preferred… Read more »
Since the mid-1990s, when an estimated one million people died from starvation or hunger-related illnesses during the famine that plagued North Korea, jangmadang (private markets) have emerged as a critical means of… Read more »
A broad crackdown on garment workers, union leaders and worker rights activists in Bangladesh marks a troubling escalation of efforts to silence garment workers and criminalize their fundamental rights to… Read more »
John Kerry is to bring down the curtain on the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia with a trip to Vietnam, a country at the heart of the international security struggle… Read more »
Vietnamese activists are expressing some hope that a new law allowing the U.S. to sanction foreign governments for human rights violations and corruption will make Hanoi think twice before it… Read more »
Authorities in China’s capital have cut off the utilities and destroyed the central heating system of a prominent non-government organization (NGO) set up to help migrant workers, as a new… Read more »
Pakistan’s 2013 general election marked the country’s first civilian transfer of power following the completion of an elected government’s full term, notes the Carnegie Endowment. However, questions linger over the… Read more »