By Aung Din Editor’s Update: On August 12, 2015, Shwe Mann was ousted as party chief, though he remains speaker of the parliament. Security forces surrounded the USDP headquarters in Naypyidaw ahead of the decision, leading many to describe Shwe…
This week on the podcast we turn to Chinese politics. In a new article for Foreign Affairs, CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies scholars Christopher Johnson and Scott Kennedy argue that Xi Jinping has reasserted and expanded the role of…
North Korea held local elections on July 19, for the first time since Kim Jong-un took power in December 2011. The elections for people’s assemblies were held in provincial (municipal), city (district), and county level, with the number of seats…
On the podcast this week we take a broader look at developments in the Philippines. Sumitro Chair Fellow Gregory Poling joins to discuss the candidates for next year’s election and what challenges Manila faces in ensuring both economic growth and…
By Ben Schaare Angry protests outside of Nauru’s Parliament building on June 16 over alleged government corruption are evidence of Nauruans’ serious concerns about the government’s continued disregard for the rule of law. As its largest aid donors and Pacific…
On the podcast this week, we analyze the looming humanitarian crisis in Southeast Asia’s waters. Murray Hiebert, Senior Fellow with the CSIS Sumitro Chair for Southeast Asia Studies, joins to help us understand why thousands of people in region are…
By Zachary Abuza The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) recently released their 2014 database, which shows robust growth in defense spending throughout Southeast Asia. Though the SIPRI data only goes through 2014, when at least two countries have already…
This week we look ahead to Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s visit to the United States. Longtime U.S.-Japan hands CSIS Japan Chair Dr. Michael Green and CSIS Simon Chair Matthew Goodman join the podcast to describe the state of the…
Who is he? Wang Qishan is head of the Central Commission for Discipline and Inspection (CCDI), the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) anti-corruption watchdog agency. Born in Qingdao in 1948, he was sent to the countryside during the Cultural Revolution. There…
This week CSIS Senior Adviser for Asia Bonnie Glaser hosted a conversation with fellow China experts Carl Minzner and Evan Osnos on China’s internal politics and peripheral relations for our neighbors at the Council on Foreign Relations. Watch their fascinating…