In The News

Climate Accord Could Push A/C Out of Sweltering India’s Reach

Ellen Barry and Coral Davenport October 17, 2016
In India, a family’s first air conditioner marks upward mobility and the potential to reach the middle class. But the low-cost air conditioners usually contain hydrofluorocarbons, a “supergreenhouse gas,” report Ellen Barry and Coral Davenport of the New York Times. Negotiators from more than 150 nations have reached a global agreement to phase out use of HFCs. For countries like the United...

Thai King's Death Adds to Uncertainty About Obama's Faltering Asia Pivot

David Brunnstrom October 14, 2016
Monarchists maintain that the system's perks include continuity in governance and preparation of leaders. Uncertainty follows the death of Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej, especially for the US pivot to Asia, suggests David Brunnstrom for Reuters. In the article, Murray Hiebert describes regional political changes since 2011: "When the pivot started, you had Thailand engaged, a...

Death of Thai King Throws Country Into Turmoil

October 13, 2016
Thailand is among the world’s 30 largest economies, though political differences since 2001 have contributed to slowing growth. The Thai king has died, and the crown prince who has lived mostly outside the country with a lifestyle described as excessive is less popular. The constitutional monarchy made military coups easier, reports the Economist, and it’s “widely assumed that the succession...

Pollution Controls as Infrastructure Investment

Euston Quah and Joergen Oerstroem Moeller October 6, 2016
Indonesia and the surrounding region produces 80 percent of the world’s palm oil. In the short term, slashing and burning brush is a low-cost way for farmers to clear land for palm-oil production. But a murky haze chokes the region, contributing to illnesses and deaths, not to mention lost production with business and school cancellations. The solution is to make slash-and-burn clearing less...

China Turns on Charm Offensive for Bhutan

Bertil Lintiner September 22, 2016
Bhutan is nestled among the Himalayas and between Asia’s two giant powers – India to the south and China to the north. The small kingdom, a country of 750,000, has long had ties with India. So India watches closely as China steps up attempts to settle longstanding border differences and strengthen ties with Bhutanese leaders including Foreign Minister Damcho Dorji who visited Beijing in August....

Arms Race Threatened on India-China Border

Neeta Lal September 5, 2016
India has deployed supersonic cruise missiles to Arunachal in the northeast, and China promised counter-measures. India developed the missiles with Russia. “The deployment of the cruise missiles is the latest in what is starting to look like an arms race between the two countries, which have endured numerous standoffs along the Line of Actual Control in recent years despite joint goodwill...

Despite Chinese Shadows, Southeast Asian Friendship With US Worth Cultivating

Satu Limaye September 1, 2016
The United States and China are among the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' dialogue partners. Under President Barack Obama, the United States has forged closer ties with the regional group that will endure, explains Satu Limaye, director of the East-West Center in Washington and the Asia Matters for America initiative. The ASEAN summit in Vientiane, Laos, will be Obama’s last as US...