In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

When President Obama made his first post-election international trip last month to Southeast Asia, his message was clear: as Asia becomes the driver of global politics in the coming decades, the U.S. is strategically reorienting its presence in the region. But the U.S. is not the only one that recognizes a need for reorientation – Asia itself does too.

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It is 11 in the morning on June 21, 2012. The phone has been ringing at ACSOR’s (Afghan Centre for Socio-Economic and Opinion Research) Central office in Kabul. The project management team has been busy assigning new sampling points to those calling in and seeking a replacement.

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This week, 4,000 organizations across the globe mark the end of the annual 16-day campaign to end gender-based violence. Women in India, like many of the women represented by these organizations, are worse off than their male counterparts on most counts.

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When I first met Pandju Merali at his home in Seal Beach, California, in 2010, he told me a story about his life, which is recorded in his memoir, From Africa 2 America. Mr. Merali talked about what it was like growing up as a child of Indian descent in the Congo…

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One of the world’s most prominent experts in Afghan art, Mr. Omara Khan Masoudi, director of the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul, is in San Francisco this week on a two-week exchange at the Asian Art Museum. Masoudi is The Asia Foundation’s Brayton Wilbur, Jr. Fellow in Asian Art. Affiliated with the National Museum [...]

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India’s online community has been buzzing since the arrest of two young women by the Mumbai police last month for posting comments on Facebook criticizing the city’s shutdown following the death of veteran Shiv Sena leader, Bal Thackeray. The arrests of Shaheen Dhada and Renu Srinivasan sparked public outrage across the country, and drew criticism from civil society, media, and the government. Telecom Minister Kabil Sibal described the arrests as “unfortunate,” and renowned Indian personalities, such as author Shobha De, anti-corruption activist Arvind Kejriwal, and others, expressed their dismay on Twitter.

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While the Asian Century is most often used to describe the global shift of economic power to Asia, Asia’s rise is also significant in the area of development cooperation. Asian countries have emerged as game changers in the aid arena, challenging traditional notions of aid, reshaping global aid architecture…

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Last week, ADB Managing Director General Rajat M. Nag appeared in a candid conversation with Asia Foundation President David Arnold at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco. The two discussed Asia’s rapid growth, the widening gap between rich and poor…

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This week, the Senate prepares to vote on House Bill No. 6052 which will lower the age of criminal liability in the nation from 15 to 12 years old. With the absence of a juvenile justice system, this means that children in conflict with the law…

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The end of a three-decade-long conflict in the Northern and Eastern Provinces in Sri Lanka is finally ushering in peace, security, and stability for millions in these affected communities. Alongside the daunting challenge of integrating thousands of returning internally displaced people…

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