In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

At a time when the Korean government is discussing plans to deploy more civilian aid workers and security troops to Afghanistan early next year, development progress in the entire South Asia region is high on the minds of Korean policymakers and aid organizations. On November 25, South Korea further solidified its commitment to international development [...]

> More

South Korea’s name and role is being recognized on the world stage because of its economic and political accomplishments. Hosting the Olympic Games in 1988 and the World Cup in 2002 shed a spotlight on our progress in industrialization and democracy. Chairing the G-20 summit talks in Seoul next November accentuates the country’s rising political [...]

> More

Pakistan is signatory to eight international human rights conventions, four of which have been ratified. Despite these legal achievements, the reality of the current state of human rights in Pakistan remains bleak, according to Amnesty International’s latest State of the World’s Human Rights report. Prison torture, deaths in custody, attacks on minorities, forced disappearances, honor [...]

> More

The unprecedented degree of polarization in Thai politics has been well-documented, and local media have undoubtedly played an instrumental role in perpetuating ongoing political tension. Gone are the days when balance and objectivity were held as worthy goals of the media. In the current commercial television climate, high-quality debate programs where two sides of an [...]

> More

Today, International Anti-Corruption Day, The Asia Foundation released its eighth semi-annual Corruption Benchmarking Survey (CBS) in Mongolia. The only surveying tool in Mongolia that gauges corruption on the household level, the survey was conducted in partnership with the Sant Maral Foundation using multi-level randomization and face-to-face interviews. Findings from the survey indicate that Mongolian households [...]

> More

Next week on Monday, December 7, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen will commence. Despite deteriorating hopes for a binding international treaty to aggressively tackle climate change, the potential remains for useful dialogue, collaboration, and concerted steps forward. Already in the works is an agreement for collaboration on clean energy and climate [...]

> More

The Himalaya mountain range is warming at a rate three times faster than the rest of the planet, and the impact of this crisis is reverberating throughout Nepal. Snowcaps are receding, new lakes are making traditional animal herding routes impassable, landslides are becoming more frequent, and insects that previously were unable to live in the [...]

> More

Election violence is a paradox. Elections are designed to be peaceful means to resolve contestation for power and to uphold the democratic rights of citizens to participate directly in governance. Yet, in the Philippines, elections have increasingly become a reason for the use of violence and have often sowed fear and divisiveness and/or violation of [...]

> More

Among the nomadic river peoples of Bangladesh, the students at Subornogram Schools had never seen a children’s book. So we asked each student to choose their favorite Bangla storybook, and then we gave it to them. Watch the video to see the kids receiving the books and take a minute to vote for your favorite [...]

> More

After a number of Mangudadatu family members were murdered on November 23 in unprecedented election-related violence in Maguindanao, in the Philippines, many have expressed concern over the possibility of a new eruption of rido, or retaliatory clan feuding. As journalists, bloggers, and the general public respond to the tragedy, The Asia Foundation’s definitive reference report [...]

> More