Women’s Rights in Asia

Are women’s rights in Asia improving or backsliding? 

In the years after #MeToo and COVID-19, is the situation for women in Asia getting better or worse?

Indonesia began promoting its G-20 presidency back in mid-2021, but the events of 2022 have seriously complicated its efforts.

The entirety of Pakistan’s politics, including its conflicts and paradoxes, is wrapped up in the question of who the next chief of army staff will be.

While China is critically important, the current debt crisis in Laos is about much more than Beijing.

What explains the dramatic escalation of violence along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border?

Xi Jinping used undeniably toughened language to talk about Taiwan.

Xi’s work report at the 20th Party Congress indicates less interest in foreign policy – and a growing obsession with internal security.

Human rights defenders in China face arrest and lengthy detention for calling out Xi’s mistakes.

The CCP has always been invested in avoiding the fate of its Soviet counterpart. But Chinese leaders’ lessons from the Soviet collapse have changed over the years.

Ironically, many projects within the BRI are the precondition for a successful decoupling from China.

Kishida’s approval numbers are falling. Should he fear being forced out of office?

The Yoon administration’s move has attracted strong criticism, but the president insists it will actually empower women.

As Japan reopens, a look back at its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic from the beginning.

North Korea’s reliance on cyberattacks is growing, but the South Korea-U.S. alliance has yet to catch up.

It may be the best option for the South Korea-U.S. alliance to deter a nuclear war with North Korea.

Competition over influence in the Buddhist world is increasingly acrimonious.

American officials acted swiftly to ease Pakistani concerns that the statement reflected a change in U.S. policy.

The India-Taliban-Pakistan triangle provides a window into the Taliban’s desire to pursue both material and ideological interests.

Parties have come together in pre-election alliances, but will these alliances hold after the results are announced?

Bhutan’s brain drain speaks to a number of social issues facing the Himalayan nation, but even migrants remain deeply rooted in their Bhutanese identity.

Rights activists in Indonesia are waging a novel campaign to bring the senior leadership of the coup government to justice in local courts.

The killing of popular radio commentator Percy Lapid has drawn intense public attention, but it is only the latest indication that journalism is still dangerous in the Philippines.

The country’s hedging strategy has proved quite successful in recent decades but is under increased pressure from growing strategic tensions in the region.

China’s leader has leveraged a boyhood connection into a blooming strategic partnership.

None of the eight Southeast Asian nations monitored by the U.S.-funded organization Freedom House had an online sphere classified as “free.”

Kazakhstan's constitutional referendum sailed through this past summer as Uzbekistan’s stalled.

Putin’s “partial mobilization” is continuing a brutal legacy of colonization – as well as resistance – among the country’s minority groups.

Ankara, seeking alternatives to its often tense relations with the West, sees in Central Asia many great opportunities.

As usual, there will be multiple names on the ballot come November 20 but only one real choice.

Outside the Kyrgyz president’s recent meeting with residents in Uzgen, villagers reportedly held signs reading “It is better to give life than land!”

A rather anodyne statement by Australia’s deputy prime minister regarding Papua New Guinea’s Bougainville quandary sparked a sharp response.

The state’s disturbingly high rate of Indigenous incarceration is a direct result of punitive measures that push people – including minors – into the prison system.

For all the talk of China and geopolitics, climate change and funding remained at the top of Pacific leaders’ agenda.

The deepening of India-New Zealand after a lull in relations is important both in bilateral terms and also within the wider regional context.

Tightened export controls could have adverse effects on U.S. national security interests if Asian allies resist the measures.

If the U.S. truly wants to improve maritime domain awareness, it needs to engage partners through pre-established mechanisms and find ways to creatively deal with data management and information sharing obstacles.

Democrats and Republicans are competing to show greater support to Taiwan, with real consequences for the U.S.-China-Taiwan triangle.

With public debt at 263 percent of GDP last year, Japan has little room left to fund its promised defense spending rise.

Russia has aerospace technology China has long wanted to access, and Moscow is hurting for customers at present.

Despite, or rather because of, the Russia-Ukraine War, the West finally appears willing to take on the challenge of a rising China – perhaps even in the Indo-Pacific.

Tashiev posed recently with the latest Bayraktar Akıncı attack drone, suggesting Kyrgyzstan had added the platform to its arsenal.

The small population of the “last village in India” straddles historical and cultural divides.

Alongside rising tensions between their governments, ethnic Koreans living in Japan face daily discrimination and bullying.

The world soccer governing body has pledged to help Jakarta improve safety and infrastructure in the run-up to next year’s Under-20 FIFA World Cup.