China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, recently declared that aggression and expansionism have never been in the Chinese nation’s ‘genes’. It is almost astonishing that he managed to say it with a straight face. Aggression and …
Articles by: "Brahma Chellaney"
In his most recent New Year’s speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that 2020 would be ‘a milestone’. Xi was right, but not in the way he expected. Far from having ‘friends in every corner …
As the world struggles to cope with the Covid-19 pandemic, which first emerged in China, Chinese President Xi Jinping is pursuing his quest for regional dominance more aggressively than ever. From the Himalayas to Hong …
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is ‘not in a good mood’, US President Donald Trump recently declared, as he offered to mediate India’s resurgent border conflict with China. After years of bending over backwards to …
The global backlash against China over its culpability for the international spread of the deadly coronavirus from Wuhan has gained momentum in recent weeks. And China itself has added fuel to the fire, as exemplified …
The Covid-19 pandemic, much like a major war, is a defining moment for the world—one that demands major reforms of international institutions. The World Health Organization, whose credibility has taken a severe beating, is a …
The new coronavirus, Covid-19, has spread to more than 130 countries—bringing social disruption, economic damage, sickness and death—largely because authorities in China, where it emerged, initially suppressed information about it. And yet China is now …
From the Tigris to the Indus and the Yangtze to the Nile, rivers were essential to the emergence of human civilisation. Millennia later, hundreds of millions of people still depend on rivers to quench their …
‘Great nations do not fight endless wars’, US President Donald Trump declared in his 2019 State of the Union speech. He had a point: military entanglements in the Middle East have contributed to the relative …
When the Cold War ended, many pundits anticipated a new era in which geoeconomics would determine geopolitics. As economic integration progressed, they predicted, the rules-based order would take root globally. Countries would comply with international …
With the global geopolitical centre of gravity shifting towards Asia, a pluralistic, rules-based Indo-Pacific order is more important than ever, including for America’s own global standing. So it was good news when, two years ago, …
One of Asia’s oldest democracies may be in jeopardy. Sri Lanka’s presidential election next month is expected to bring to power another member of the Rajapaksa family, whose affinity for authoritarianism, violence and corruption is …