Headlines

When the world’s greatest power can’t win

For three decades after the Cold War, Washington operated under a dangerous assumption: that military supremacy could indefinitely compensate for diplomatic exhaustion. The United States possessed the world’s most advanced armed forces, unmatched naval reach, and a financial

Asia

Nuclear holocaust threat just another day in Trump World

As he struggles to force Iran’s capitulation, US President Donald Trump issued what seemed to be yet another threat to commit an act of mass destruction against the country through nuclear warfare. When negotiations have faltered in recent weeks, Trump has on multiple occasions

Asia

Post-pax world needs a post-Cartesian mind

Ravi Kant’s recent Asia Times essay argues that the next world order will not be built like the old ones. Pax Britannica rested on sea lanes and finance. Pax Americana rested on markets, media and military reach. But the next global order, Kant suggests, will be organized

Asia

US, EU and China profoundly split on AI intimacy

Globally, hundreds of millions of users now interact regularly with AI companions. The World Health Organization has declared loneliness a global health threat. AI companions offer an immediate, if unproven, response. In 2014, Microsoft launched Xiaoice in China, an AI

Asia

US concerned by Taiwan defence delay 'concession' to China

TAIPEI, May 9 - Further delays to Taiwan military spending are a \"concession\" to China, the U.S. State Department said, as Taipei's defence ministry detailed the impact of projects excluded from a package passed by the opposition-controlled parliament.

Asia

A China move now on Taiwan would be an enormous gamble

“The Iran war weakens deterrence in Asia, undercuts confidence of US allies and partners, and makes conflict with China more likely.” That’s become an article of faith among those opposing the US fight with Iran. The US military – the navy in particular – is indeed smaller than

Asia

Trump claiming Iran war ‘win’ – here’s the reality

Two months into the war in Iran, the reasons the US gave for launching this conflict – and Washington’s minimum criteria for claiming success – now appear unintelligible. So much so that US officials are now arguing the war had actually ended in America’s favor almost a month

Asia

EU-Japan joining hands to break China’s supply chain grip

The European Union and Japan are hardening their economic partnership against what they increasingly regard as China’s strategic manipulation of global supply chains. This sharpening convergence was on full display in early May, when the EU and Japan convened the 7th High-Level

Asia

Rupiah rout stoking fears of a 1997 repeat in Indonesia

TOKYO – Indonesian officials are working overtime to dismiss any suggestion that Jakarta is catching a whiff of 1997 in the air. But the force of their interventions to steady the rupiah tells a very different story. Bank Indonesia is hemorrhaging currency reserves to put a

Asia

Japan’s ammonia push risks locking Indonesia into coal

In the uneasy politics of energy transition, few ideas are as seductive — or as risky — as compromise. Ammonia co-firing, now being advanced through Japan’s Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC) at Indonesia’s Suralaya and Paiton coal plants, is one such compromise. It promises

Asia