Since late August, the Burmese government and its military forces have carried out a variety of coordinated attacks involving arson, rape, murder, and other abuses against the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority who live predominantly in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State. The majority Buddhist nation views the more than one million Rohingyan men, women, and children […]
Asia-Pacific
North Korea’s Nuclear Strategy is Working
The past few weeks have been unnerving in the international arena, with North Korea having conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date on September 3rd and yet another missile test on September 15th. On September 15th, North Korea launched its second intermediate-range ballistic missile over the northern coast of Japan, this time in response […]
Dalai Lama Drama
Tawang is a town of approximately eleven thousand people, situated nearly ten thousand feet above sea level in the Indian Himalayas. It is also home to the Tawang Monastery, the largest Buddhist monastery outside of Lhasa, Tibet. Last week, that monastery hosted the fourteenth Dalai Lama—a seemingly innocuous visit that left the Chinese government fuming. […]
Military Bluster and North Korean Escalation
On the morning of April 15, 2017, on the one hundred and fifth anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s founder and the grandfather of current Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, North Korea conducted a missile test, the next in a long line of recent test provocations. The missile was launched from a submarine […]
Defensive Luddism: North Korean Nukes and Cyber-Resiliency
Nine countries possess nuclear weapons, but one—due to its perceived irrationality—elicits fear in even the most powerful military in the world, and for good reason. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, North Korea has doggedly pursued a nuclear weapons program since 2003 and has conducted at least twenty-four missile or nuclear tests […]
How Bombs Changed Swimsuits
The bikini is a cross-cultural piece of clothing worn all over the world. Supermodels make millions posing in it, which has led to the bikini becoming synonymous with glamour and beauty. Perhaps this ubiquity and association with beauty is why some people question who should wear the bikini (although, according to a poll of men, […]
20 Years Later: France’s Radioactive Legacy in French Polynesia
Two decades have passed since the last nuclear test was conducted in the South Pacific, but native Polynesians continue to suffer the aftermath.
Interpreting China’s Sloppy Rhetoric
A blip in one of China’s typically polished press releases raises eyebrows. Was it intentional or a product of incompetence?
The Rise of Patient-on-Doctor Violence in China
What do a lead pipe, an umbrella, and a fruit knife have in common? Just ask a Chinese doctor.
Why Taiwan’s Millennials Are Challenging Cross-Strait Identity
The youth’s new ideas about who they are may settle a struggle started by their grandparents.