Aralkum “The color of the water was shocking blue, really blue. Like the sky,” an aged Kazakh man reminisces, mentally replenishing the waters of the Aral Sea as his eyes scour the desolation. Once the fourth largest inland body of fresh water on the planet, the Aral Sea was resplendent with natural beauty, endemic species, … Read more
It has now been over a month since Turnbull took to Australia’s highest office. Approval ratings remain high as 63 percent of voters rate the new leader as their preferred Prime Minister and the government leads two-party preferred polls at 52 per cent to the Opposition’s 48 per cent. Turnbull’s gamble for leadership has already … Read more
Several hot-button issues were on agenda for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit to the United States: cyber security, nuclear policy, and climate change, to name a few. An Ancient Greek academic would seem to have no place at a table set with such 21st-century issues. Yet, the fourth-century BCE historian Thucydides holds relevance in … Read more
With each passing day, the Bihari electoral battlefield intensifies. Candidate-soldiers continue to stack their arsenals with political weaponry—in-depth demographic data, jingoistic slogans, and mudslinging campaigns. Impassioned and ingrained with dogma, each team trudges to the battlefield, vying for victory in the Hindi Heartland. Headlines emphasize the stakes: control of Bihar is crucial in the war … Read more
Talk of a Chinese slowdown and the worrying U.S. equities market have led many to question whether the broader U.S. recovery is on the brink of a downturn. These past few months have been especially concerning, with one of China’s most notable indices, the Shanghai Composite Index, down more than a third over the course … Read more
This past September, Singaporean politicians made history by contesting the nation’s premier political authority (the People’s Action Party) in all 89 parliamentary districts. At first glance, this opposition to the country’s foremost ruling party since 1954 suggests a transition in popular opinion away from traditional authoritative constructs and towards more modern democratic ones. However, the … Read more
Francis Fukuyama, in his 1989 essay “The End of History?” hypothesized that the end of the Cold War marked the “universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” But what came after the fall of the Berlin Wall was anything but Fukuyama’s end of history. Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika ended in … Read more
“It was a good result for the PAP, but an excellent result for Singapore.” So spoke Lee Hsien Long, Singapore’s prime minister, upon the victory of his People’s Action Party in the recent September 2015 elections. Lee’s words are indubitably optimistic, and justifiably so—the PAP won almost 70 percent of the vote. Context is particularly … Read more
“Everyone right? Thank you for being here tonight.” With that curt statement, Australian Government Whip Scott Buchholz began a speech that lasted 52 terse seconds. It was 9:50 P.M. on Monday, September 14. In his speech, Buchholz announced that Tony Abbott had just lost the leadership of the Liberal Party, and along with it his … Read more
Three years ago, more than 700 million people in India experienced a blackout that lasted more than 10 hours. Power outages of this scale are not just an inconvience; they also disrupt commutes and business activity, adding to Asia’s many economic challenges. Coupled with today’s overcrowded trains and roads, crises like the one in 2012 … Read more