In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

International climate negotiations began this week in Cancun, Mexico, with little fanfare or expectation of reaching a binding agreement on reducing rising global temperatures. The Cancun Summit builds on last year’s disappointing but massive Copenhagen climate talks in Denmark. Since then, governments have done little to follow through on their pledges to reduce greenhouse gases [...]

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India’s Marwar region, located in the Great Indian Thar Desert, is the most densely populated arid zone in the world. While most deserts have three to four inhabitants per square kilometer, this region has 84 to 90. It covers an area of 13.5 million hectares comprising seven districts in Rajasthan State, India. The economy of [...]

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The signs of climate change are already evident in Mongolia as in many other countries in the world. Mongolia’s fragile ecosystems, pastoral animal husbandry, and rain-fed agriculture are extremely sensitive to climate change. As such, Mongolia’s traditional economic sectors and its people’s nomadic way of life are highly vulnerable to climate change. Mongolia joined the [...]

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After Nepal’s peace process began in 2006, ending a decades-long civil war, the Nepali state has become weak, a result of the compromises made by the major political actors for the sake of peace and the inability to swiftly conclude the process, according to “Impunity in Nepal: A study of Excesses during the Transition,” a [...]

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One is constantly reminded of the grim realities of Afghanistan today, a country entering its 10th year of war with a bloody and brutal insurgency and a government in Kabul commonly viewed as corrupt and ineffective. But there is another perception of what is taking place in Afghanistan that should be taken into account — [...]

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On a recent visit from Phnom Penh, In Asia spoke with chief of party of The Asia Foundation’s Counter Trafficking in Persons program in Cambodia, Nandita Baruah, about Cambodia’s recent strides in the fight against human trafficking and on-the-ground challenges that still remain. Baruah recently joined international trafficking experts to discuss human trafficking challenges in [...]

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Although the main stories of the Obama visit to Korea revolved around the gap between the United States and China on global rebalancing issues at the G-20 and the failure of Presidents Obama and Lee to tee up the KORUS FTA, a third issue arose that dramatizes Sino-U.S. differences over the Korean peninsula. At a [...]

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This article is the final installment in a three-part blog series exploring barriers to women’s advancement in Asia and how The Asia Foundation is working to address them. November 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the beginning of the 16 Days Campaign, a coordinated series of worldwide events [...]

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On a rainy day in October, I found myself in the hallways of a secondary school in Indonesia’s West Sumatra. The classrooms were filled with colorful decorations and the vibrant sound of children’s voices buzzed through the building. A loud school bell mixed with the call to prayer coming from the mosque on the school [...]

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In July 2009 and February 2010, the Hills Program on Governance at the Asian Institute of Management and The Asia Foundation brought Michael Johnston, Charles A. Dana Professor of Political Science at Colgate University, to the Philippines to assess areas of corruption vulnerabilities in the country and to develop recommendations for strategies to address those [...]

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