South East Asia

In the last three years, Indonesia and the southern Philippines have seen something new: women carrying out suicide bombings – some with their husbands, some with their children, and some avenging slain husbands – targeting churchgoers, police officers, and soldiers.1 In Malaysia, during the May 2018 general election, a 51-year-old …

The Taliban condemned the United States on Wednesday for what they described as “plain interference” in Afghanistan by offering to resettle Afghan civilians with affiliations to international forces who could be targeted by the insurgent group. Washington on Monday announced the program that offers thousands of Afghan interpreters and translators, …

There’s a variety of concerns that keep Indo-Pacom on its toes — many centered around the activities of China, which quite often don’t match up with the words that come out of Beijing, its commander said. “We certainly view with concern many of the actions that we’ve seen from Beijing,” …

India has deployed warships to the South China Sea in what New Delhi proclaims to be a bid to expand security ties with “friendly countries” and in an apparent move to join and play a bigger role in a US-led scheme to counter China near Chinese territorial waters. Four Indian …

Before sitting down to write this week’s column, I opened a large and tattered, white, padded envelope that had arrived from Hong Kong late last week to find the final issue of the city’s once famously feisty newspaper, the Apple Daily, which was forced by local authorities to shut down …

Biden officials’ claims that the US doesn’t ‘seek conflict’ is belied by pushes to continually one-up Beijing’s defenses. One purpose of Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman’s meetings in China on Monday was to place “guardrails” on the deteriorating relationship. She told her counterparts that the United States welcomes “stiff …

The war-torn state was an important proving ground for Balkan militaries for almost 20 years – but it came at a considerable expense, and that money can now be usefully redirected. After the United States and NATO earlier this year finally ended the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, Balkan NATO …

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is not yet complete, but Afghanistan’s neighbors are already contending with its fallout as they face the immediate spillover of the conflict into their respective territories. The insurgency has reached the borders of all of Afghanistan’s neighbors, who are choosing to both engage the Taliban …

The Turkish contingent in Afghanistan will not assume any combat duty other than self-defense, Defense Ministry spokeswoman Pinar Kara said on Thursday. “The Turkish armed forces have been stationed in Afghanistan for 20 years, and for the past six years, they have been protecting and running the international airport in …

As the geopolitical game between the United States and other Western countries against China continues, the United States, Britain, Europe, Canada, and other countries in the West are assaulting China over the Xinjiang human rights issue and have imposed unilateral sanctions on a number of Chinese officials and institutions. In …