#Vietnam

This month was the biannual International Anti-Corruption Conference, which took place this year in Bangkok. The conference is an opportunity for a large portion of the world’s people who are thinking about corruption to get together, share ideas, learn what’s new, and of course schmooze (a bit). The theme of the conference this year was […]

Chinese PM Wen Jiabao and Japanese PM Kan Naoto; Photo credit should read ADRIAN BRADSHAW/AFP/Getty Images) Since the September Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands incident involving the Japanese coast guard and a Chinese fishing trawler in Japanese waters,  the world’s 2nd and 3rd largest economies continue to experience strained relations   On Monday October 25, Japan made […]

Nationalism is a beast the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did not create, but has often tried harness to it’s benefit.  Still, the use of this tool is tempered by the ever present Chinese fear of chaos (luàn:乱).  A potential disaster scenario for the party is one in which it finds itself on the wrong side […]

The media is often used by those with competing messages to disseminate information or dis-information. Sometimes, though, the message is a lie. Vietnam is an unfortunate example of manipulating the media and choking free speech for their own destructive ends. Just yesterday, several Vietnamese writers were given honors for their work under severe pressure from […]

Completely unrelated to U.S.-Cuban diplomatic relations (or lack thereof), Cuban imports of U.S. agricultural products—exempted from the 48-year embargo since the year 2000—declined by 26 percent last year, from a peak of $710 million in 2008 to $528 million in 2009. The United States remains the largest seller of food to Cuba. American analysts judge […]

Southeast Asia has officially joined the ranks of Europe, the Americas, and Africa in launching their own regional human rights commission.  Speculation on the proposed human rights body for The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has dominated political commentary in the region for the past year.  Yet, now that the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights […]

The only US Army Officer convicted for involvement in the 1968 “My Lai massacre” has publicly apologized for his role in the Vietnam War-era killings.

At the recent ASEAN Regional Forum in Thailand, U.S. Secretary of State Clinton, before the the 25 nations present, officially confirmed a substantial shift in U.S. foreign policy when she stated: ‘On behalf of our country and the Obama administration, I want to send a very clear message that the United States is back, that we […]

I wrote before that – Future political integration is dependent on ASEAN resolving its many territorial disputes. There is still a high level of nationalism in the region; member-countries are suspicious of each other due to centuries of conflict, followed by colonial isolation. These disputes were recently surveyed on Capital Hill, by Richard P. Cronin, […]

Human Rights Come to ASEAN? On Monday, in Phuket, Thailand, ASEAN laid out plans to formally adopt the ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AIGCHR) at its regional meeting in October of this year.  The commission will have a mandate for greater human rights education, information dissemination, and inter-regional capacity building.  It will be be […]

The United States maybe  in the initial stages of a Southeast Asian foreign policy overhaul; the Obama Administration is not only reconsidering its sanctions against Myanmar, but also reevaluating America’s policy toward the entire Southeast Asian region.  Brian McCartan has an informative article on the recent removal of Cambodia and Laos from the United States’ […]