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Visions of an Asian NATO
Japan’s new prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, is stirring the pot – notably on regional security matters. He has proposed something that has done more than raise a few eyebrows in the foreign and defence ministries of several countries. An Asian version of NATO, he has suggested, was an idea worth considering, notably given China’s ambitions […]
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Why Modi’s India is Suddenly getting Washington’s Cold Shoulder
Modi’s narrow re-election this month was greeted in the U.S. media with petulant satisfaction that Indian voters had “woken up”, as an oped piece in the New York Times put it. The Washington Post’s editorial board rebuked Modi with the headline: “In India, the voters have spoken. They do not want autocracy.” The Post editors […]
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Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World

Iri and Toshi Maruki, XV Nagasaki, 1982, from The Hiroshima Panels. For Prabir, who is now out of jail. On the evening of 14 May, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken climbed onstage at Barman Dictat in Kyiv, Ukraine, to pick up an electric guitar and join the Ukrainian punk band 19.99. Ukrainians, he said, are […]
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Manila Should be Aware of the Perils of Acting as a US Stick to Muddy South China Sea

Illustration: Liu Rui/GT The Philippines is regarded as a key component in the US Indo-Pacific Strategy. But compared to Tokyo and Canberra, which take on more aggressive roles, Manila, in the heart of Washington, is merely a stick used to muddy the waters of the South China Sea. In other words, the US aims to […]
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Imperial Visits: US Emissaries in the Pacific
For some time, Washington has been losing its spunk in the Pacific. When it comes to the Pacific Islands, a number have not fallen – at least entirely – for the rhetoric that Beijing is there to take, consume, and dominate all. Nor have such countries been entirely blind to their own sharpened interests. This […]