BTS, military enlistment controversy, and lessons for Korea’s public diplomacy

Written by Nguyen Le

Miscalculated interventions from the government as in the case of BTS weaken South Korean soft power, social cohesion, and — even worse — personal rights (by instrumentalising humans as public diplomacy tools).

COP 27: India could be the key to deadlocked debates on loss and damage due to climate change

Written by Miriam Prys-Hansen and Jan Phillip Ronde

Progress on the issue of loss and damage could benefit from clear engagement by the ‘in-between powers’ in the Global South, such as India, who may be in a position to exert a decisive influence on the outcomes of the COP27 talks.

Editor's Picks9DLNovember 16, 20229DashLine, COP 27: India could be the key to deadlocked debates on loss and damage due to climate change, Miriam Prys-Hansen, Jan Phillip Ronde, Warsaw Mechanism for Loss and Damage, Modi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India, Denmark, climate change, loss and damage, Global North, COP27, Egypt, Global South, developing countries, developed countries, L&D, industrialised countries, COP19, transnational dialogue, transnational cooperation, climate reparations, Green Climate Fund, disaster risk reduction funds, humanitarian aid, Glasgow Dialogue on Loss and Damage, Bonn Climate Change Conference, LDCs, Germany, United States, Jennifer Morgen, Maisa Rojas, G7, V20, environmental emergencies, heat waves, tropical storms, devastating floods, Pakistan, Europe, Cyclone Batsirai, national energy self-sufficiency, energy self-sufficiency, Sharm El-Sheikh, United Nations General Assembly, UN General Assembly (UNGA), G20, G20 Environmental and Climate Ministers’ Meeting, UN climate targets, Infrastructure, L&D financial facility, International Solar Alliance, green transitions, Champions of the Earth Award

A domestic audience for a global spotlight: Indonesia’s G20 presidency and the Bali Summit

Written by Radityo Dharmaputra and Demas Nauvarian

The Global South can play an essential role as the host of a peace forum after the G20 Summit, and Indonesia — following its historical role in the Bandung Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement — can be the initiator of such a forum.

Editor's Picks9DLNovember 15, 20229DashLine, A domestic audience for a global spotlight: Indonesia’s G20 presidency and the Bali Summit, Radityo Dharmaputra, Demas Nauvarian, Indonesia, G20, Bali Summit, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), ASEAN, MIKTA, BRICS, Mexico, South Korea, Turkey, Australia, post-pandemic recovery, global health, energy transition, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia, Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Global South, Bandung Conference, Non-Aligned Movement, Lowy Institute, Megawati Sukarnoputri, PDI-P, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Demokrat, Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo, Kyiv, Moscow, Evan Laksmana, former President Yudhoyono, UN, G7 Summit, East Asia, economic growth, food crisis, energy crisis, economic recession, geopolitics, UN General Assembly, grain initiative, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, middle-power, Multilateralism, peace

Death penalty in Southeast Asia: Disturbing trends

Written by Susannah Patton

The mixed picture for the death penalty in Southeast Asia, especially in countries where the death penalty is being actively debated, such as Malaysia, suggests that further advocacy by Australia and other like-minded countries would be timely.

Editor's Picks9DLOctober 19, 20229DashLine, Susannah Patton, Death penalty in Southeast Asia: Disturbing trends, Lowy Institute, death penalty, Southeast Asia, myanmar, Junta, Myanmar's junta, Myanmar Junta, execution, Phyo Zayar Thaw, Ko Jimmy, political prisoners, Frontier Myanmar, Cambodia, abolitionist, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN, Amnesty International, death sentence, COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19, Singapore, UN, United Nations, ethnic minorities, justice, Capital Punishment Justice Project, drug, drugs, War on drugs, War on Drugs, Vietnam, prison, international scrutiny, Thailand, de facto abolitionist, Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn, Malaysia, Pakatan Harapan government, Pakatan Harapan, Philippine President Duterte, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla, indonesia, civil society groups, court, Indonesia’s draft criminal code, criminal, probation, 2017 Universal Periodic Review by the UN Human Rights Council, UN Human Rights Council, Australia, European Union, EU, Australia’s new Labor government

Samarkand 2022 — the ‘China Dream’ of SCO Summits

Written by Giulia Sciorati

As the SCO opens to other Asian sub-regions and even the African continent, Central Asia risks losing its centrality and becoming a minor geographical area compared to the Gulf or Southeast Asia, where the national interests of SCO member states (and China, above all) are prominent.

Editor's Picks9DLOctober 12, 20229DashLine, Samarkand 2022 — the ‘China Dream’ of SCO Summits, Giulia Sciorati, Samarkand, SCO, SCO Summit, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, China, Russia, Ukraine, Russo-Ukrainian war, sphere of influence, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Uzbekistan, Eurasian, Samarkand Declaration, non-interference, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Xi Jinping, harmonious coexistence of man and nature, bilateral, trilateral, multilateral, multilateralism, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Wang Yi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Narendra Modi, India, SCO member states, observer states, Central Asia, India-China border dispute, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Putin, COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19, China-Kazakhstan joint statement, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, Sadyr Japarov, Iran, Belarus, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Maldives, Kuwait, UAE, myanmar, the Gulf, North Africa, South and Southeast Asia, economy, China Dream, Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), CSTO, Peacekeeping, peacekeepers, Beijing, Moscow, post-Soviet space

The Taliban don’t know what to do — Afghanistan’s challenges

Written by Tim Foxley

A collapse back into civil war is not inevitable, but the Taliban are clearly struggling to move from an insurgency to a government.

Pernicious anti-politics — illiberal “Unity” and the future of dissent in the Philippines

Written by Anthony Lawrence Borja

We must remember that Marcos Jr.’s pernicious anti-politics, veiled by both his rhetoric of unity and silence on controversial political issues, has resonated with many Filipinos.

Editor's Picks9DLSeptember 16, 20229DASHLINE, Pernicious anti-politics — illiberal “Unity” and the future of dissent in the Philippines, Anthony Lawrence Borja, Philippines, anti-politics, Commission on the Filipino Language, Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, KWF, Carmelita Abdurahman, Benjamin Mendillo, Marcos, Marcos Jr, Ferdinand Marcos, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Duterte, Rodrigo Duterte, Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, Arthur Casanova, free speech, freedom of expression, authoritarianism, unity, democratic, democracy, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., human rights, Filipino, Filipinos, Chantal Mouffe, Hannah Arendt, anti-political, intolerance, plurality, repression, opposition, dissent, politics of division, mareklamo, panay reklamo, anti-communist, Red-Tagging, middle class, Marco Garrido, freedom of speech, Susan Ople, leader-nation-state, inauguration, protester, protest, State of the Nation address, Marcos Sr., Drug War, Martial Law, Duterte’s Drug War, National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, (NTF-ELCAC), Pamumulitika, Pinulitika

Campaigns, criminalisation and concessions: Indigenous land rights in Cambodia

Written by Bunly Soeung

In Cambodia, the violation of the land rights of indigenous peoples who have lived for thousands of years in their ancestral forests continues unabated.

Editor's Picks9DLAugust 31, 20229DashLine, Campaigns, criminalisation, and concessions: indigenous land rights in Cambodia, Bunly Soeung, Cambodia, indigenous communities, indigenous peoples, indigenous rights, chuncheat, Khmer, North Cambodia, North Eastern Cambodia, Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri, Kratie, Stung Treng, Kampong Thom, Preah Vihear, forests, natural resources, agricultural production, slash-and-burn cultivation, forest resources, Khmer Rouge, civil war, abolished private land ownership, vietnam, UNTAC, timber extraction, agro-industrial plantation, Department of Ethnic Minorities Development, Ministry of Rural Development and Land Law, Land Management and Administration Project, Sub-Decree on Economic Land Concessions, UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Protected Area Law, National Policy on the Development of Indigenous Peoples, Sub-Decree No. 83, registration of land, private industrial agriculture companies, LICADHO, economic land concessions, ELCs, state land, industrial agriculture investment, rural communities, large-scale industrial agriculture, granted lands, human rights, hydropower construction, exploitative mining, illegal logging, deforestation, displacement, environmental pollution, ruling elite, concessions, China, Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, patron-client networks, political elites, patronage system, corruption, land policy reform, politico-commercial elites, high-ranking officials, Try Pheap, TTY, Chinese Guangdong Hengfu Group, Communal land registration, legal communal land titles, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Interior, Chong, Koh Kong, Areng Valley, hydropower dam, Ministry of Environment, lèse-majesté, Chut Wutty, Ven Vorn, Mother Nature Cambodia, Casotim, Phnom Penh, BUNLY SOEUNG

US efforts to strengthen collective defence in Europe won’t come free for Asia

Written by Tom Corben

What will frustrate many in Asia is that the urgency evident in these new US commitments to collective defence in Europe is yet to be mirrored in parallel efforts in the Indo-Pacific.

Thailand breaks away from Southeast Asia’s brutally punitive drug policies

Written by Gloria Lai

In a region still marked by extremely cruel and inhumane responses to people engaged in drug-related activities, the reforms to Thailand’s criminal justice, health and economic systems resulting from the series of drug law changes represent a welcome change.

China’s endorsement of Russia’s assault: Implications for Europe and Asia

Written by Justyna Szczudlik

China’s political support for Russia’s assault on Ukraine and coercion against Lithuania shows that the PRC has already become a security threat to Europe.

Uncharted waters: In search of Slovenia’s long-term China strategy

Written by Valentina Vengust

As a small country without the economic or political leverage of the bigger players, openly pursuing and advocating for the formation of an EU-wide unified strategy towards China could be extremely beneficial for Slovenia to attain its own foreign-policy goals.

ASEAN leads the Indo-Pacific climate response

Written by Clare Richardson-Barlow

The Indo-Pacific region includes several of the world’s largest polluters as well as leaders in renewable energy use and innovative policy solutions to climate and environmental challenges. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) presents great potential for regional responses to the global climate change challenge.

Ukraine: Don’t write off the international order — read and rewrite it

Written by Fleur Johns and Anastasiya Kotova

Whatever the “rules-based international order” looks like after this horrifying war, it will have been active throughout in more ways than are commonly acknowledged and will have shown itself more open to redistributive change than some would have had us believe.

Women’s participation in peace and security: Why it matters

Written by Julia Strasheim

The debate on how women get to participate in matters of international peace and security is both a timely and a relevant one. While there has been improvement, continue to be woefully underrepresented in the peace and security domain.

Scholz’s €100 billion surprise: A paradigm shift in Germany’s security policy?

Written by Christiane Heidbrink

Due to the complexity of weapon systems and personnel requirements, a financial injection alone is not enough to solve the Bundeswehr’s structural challenges. Consequently, the one-time sum of €100 billion does not represent a militarisation trend but a necessary investment to plug serious holes in its equipment.

EU and ASEAN: Turning 45 and stronger than ever

Written by Igor Driesmans

Over the past 45 years, the EU and ASEAN have built links that make the EU the most comprehensive of ASEAN’s partners. On this anniversary, we look forward to taking the Strategic Partnership to the next level.

2022: Hong Kong — more than just territory

As China tightens its grip over political and civic institutions, Hong Kong seems to have been left to fend for itself by the international community. 9DASHLINE invites a select group of experts to identify some wider concerns and avenues of support for the city-state fighting to maintain its democracy.