INASIA
Weekly Insights and Analysis
‘Seven Deadly Days’: Road Safety in Thailand
One weekend in 1978 when I was teaching English at a university in Bangkok, I decided to visit friends in Maha Sarakham, a province in northeastern Thailand. I sat in the front of the bus as I wanted to see as much of the Thai countryside as possible since this was...
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Will Justice for Sahar be the Tipping Point for Pakistan’s Rule of Law?
After four long and painful years, the parents of Sahar Batool finally got a taste of justice last month. In 2014, their seven-year-old daughter, who belonged to the Hazara minority ethnic group in Balochistan province, was raped, murdered, and left on a pile of...
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Climate Adaptation Strategies and the Role of Gender
Last week, heads of state from Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand met for the third Mekong River Commission (MRC) Summit in Siem Reap to discuss the threats to the Mekong River region, among them how to develop effective coping strategies for climate-related...
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Southeast Asia’s Fisheries Near Collapse from Overfishing
Approximately 12 percent of the world's population relies upon fisheries and aquaculture for their livelihood, and over half of the world's people get a significant source of their animal protein from fish and seafood. In Southeast Asia, this proportion is...
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Views from the Region on U.S. Policy in Asia Today
A symposium on U.S. policy toward Asia on March 15 in Hong Kong came at a particularly timely moment: In the week prior, President Trump unceremoniously removed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson; announced he would be willing to meet North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un,...
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As Kabul Grows, Clean Water a Step Toward State Legitimacy in Afghanistan
In 2050, Kabul's population is expected to reach 9 million, making it one of the fastest growing cities in the world. People are flocking to the capital due to an overall trend in urbanization, especially for increased job possibilities and more opportunity. Some are...
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Can Myanmar’s Libraries Help Combat Human Trafficking?
In June, the U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons Report moved Myanmar up to Tier 2 on its watch list, acknowledging "significant efforts" to combat human trafficking and forced labor in the country. For a country undergoing rapid reform and still grappling...
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A Pipeline for Landlocked Afghanistan: Can It Help Deliver Peace?
Two remarkable things happened at the end of February in Afghanistan: At the 2nd Kabul Process Conference on February 28, Afghanistan's National Unity Government (NUG) unveiled a peace offer (without preconditions) to the Taliban in a bold attempt to restart the...
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A Front Row Seat to Five Years of Rapid Change in Myanmar
In 2012, when I first started to travel to Myanmar from my base in Hanoi, where I was The Asia Foundation's Vietnam country representative, the big question that everyone I met would raise was: "Is this transition to be believed?" The military generals who shed their...
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