https://www.scmp.com/rss/267362/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Michael Vatikiotis Michael Vatikiotis In a world where the tools of formal diplomacy have been cast aside in favour of interest-driven deal-making, interactions between states have assumed new and more flexible forms. Once dominated by elaborate formality and often generating empty positions and declarations, states are turning to more informal mechanisms that grant space for private diplomacy and create new opportunities for stability and peace, even if they do little to reinforce international law. This shift in modality partly... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3331123/diplomacy-age-populism-fast-fickle-and-unbound-rules-old?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3331123/diplomacy-age-populism-fast-fickle-and-unbound-rules-old?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 02 Nov 2025 02:00:09 +0000 As the world is consumed by seemingly intractable crises, the norms and values that once guided professional responses are being challenged daily. From international humanitarian law, which governs the conduct of war, to humanitarian aid, public health, and even journalism, the frameworks that once ensured impartiality, probity, and fairness have been shaken – and in some cases, undermined. Powerful revisionist forces in the West are using threats against the media and freedom of speech in... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3305275/whose-lives-matter-navigating-aid-and-ethics-divided-world?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3305275/whose-lives-matter-navigating-aid-and-ethics-divided-world?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 06 Apr 2025 07:00:08 +0000 The parade of world leaders through Rome for the G20 summit and then onto Glasgow for the United Nations climate change meeting at the start of November was, at first sight, a welcome return to in-person diplomacy after two years in a virtual vacuum. But the euphoria was short-lived as leaders came up short on critical issues of Covid-19 vaccine equality and progress on lowering rising global temperatures. Key leaders from Russia and China were absent, while others sparred on the sidelines.... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3154913/why-china-us-need-learn-cold-war-avoid-hot-war?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3154913/why-china-us-need-learn-cold-war-avoid-hot-war?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 06 Nov 2021 10:30:19 +0000 There is never any candour when it comes to grand strategy. China’s rise is presented as peaceful when it surely can’t be. America’s protection of the global rules-based order is couched in terms of shared values, when there is nothing equal or shared about who gets to write the rules. After spending the first two decades of the 21st century tiptoeing around the issue, distracted by other concerns such as the global war on terror, the world’s two largest powers are locked in a proper struggle... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3132661/new-imperialism-asia-gets-caught-power-struggle-between-china-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3132661/new-imperialism-asia-gets-caught-power-struggle-between-china-and?utm_source=rss_feed Mon, 10 May 2021 00:30:08 +0000 Indonesia’s proactive response to the February 1 coup in Myanmar has prompted a mixed reaction, with Indonesian foreign minister Retno Marsudi cautiously applauded for moving swiftly to try and shape a regional position on the military takeover while all the major powers, including China and the US, were happy to see Indonesia and Asean take the lead. On the ground in Myanmar, however, there were angry scenes outside the Indonesian embassy in Yangon and the hashtag “#rejectASEANresolution”... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3124550/indonesias-myanmar-activism-has-achieved-little-except-us-and?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3124550/indonesias-myanmar-activism-has-achieved-little-except-us-and?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 09 Mar 2021 01:30:15 +0000 As US Presidential-elect Joe Biden gears up to build a broader coalition of allies to deal with China, Beijing is doubling down on its critics with aggressive “wolf-warrior diplomacy”. Southeast Asia, lying squarely between the two arms of a giant geopolitical nutcracker, is feeling the squeeze of the superpower rivalry. To avoid conflict, new middle power configurations and bold diplomatic initiatives are in order. There were initial hopes that the incoming Biden administration would soften the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3112970/how-japan-indonesia-could-help-ease-us-china-tensions-southeast?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3112970/how-japan-indonesia-could-help-ease-us-china-tensions-southeast?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 08 Dec 2020 03:00:18 +0000 There no longer seems any doubt that the United States and China have embarked on a period of aggressive confrontation. A brisk war of words has quickly escalated to tit-for-tat consulate closures, and now Chinese sources say a US warplane has flown close to Shanghai: these are initial skirmishes in a much more serious conflict that is likely to worsen at least until the US elections in November, and probably beyond. The question is, how will this confrontation play out in the rest of... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3095358/us-and-china-limber-strategic-contest-which-asia-battles-will?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3095358/us-and-china-limber-strategic-contest-which-asia-battles-will?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 31 Jul 2020 01:00:14 +0000 With the scale and impact of the coronavirus pandemic, we are told to expect a different kind of world when lockdown and quarantine regimes are eventually lifted. But almost certainly, the one aspect of life that will not change is a proclivity for conflict. Rather, existing divides between powers, regions, neighbouring countries and within societies will be exacerbated. New drivers of conflict will emerge. An analogy could be made with the end of World War II, which gave birth almost... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3085721/coronavirus-post-covid-conflicts-come-asia-will-have-fend-itself?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3085721/coronavirus-post-covid-conflicts-come-asia-will-have-fend-itself?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 24 May 2020 23:00:19 +0000 As governments in Southeast Asia struggle to contain the spread of Covid-19, poor leadership, weak institutions and high levels of public mistrust have exposed the fragility of countries that made a transition to more democratic government over the past two decades. The worry is that coping with Covid-19 will mean a return to authoritarian habits, backed by military power. Two trends are discernible. The first is the tendency in those countries that have experienced either direct military rule,... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3078346/coronavirus-paving-way-return-military-rule-asia?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3078346/coronavirus-paving-way-return-military-rule-asia?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 04 Apr 2020 01:30:14 +0000 ASIA’s democracy deficit used to stem mainly from the self-interest and greed of local autocrats, but today the biggest threat increasingly comes from the erosion of institutions in established democracies that were once the standard setters of freedom and justice. Past popular struggles against autocratic regimes drew strength from external inspiration and support. The so-called third wave of democracy in the 1970s saw student uprisings in Europe spread to Asia, which challenged autocratic... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3075162/western-democracy-retreat-asia-may-have-forge-its-own-path?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3075162/western-democracy-retreat-asia-may-have-forge-its-own-path?utm_source=rss_feed Sun, 15 Mar 2020 02:00:13 +0000 Over the past two months, as President Joko Widodo prepared to embark on his second term in office, students took to the streets across the country to protest, angry people in far-flung Papua burned down government offices, and a senior government minister was attacked and stabbed in broad daylight. Not an auspicious start for someone who won a convincing victory at the polls in April. The trouble began when the restive region of Papua erupted in violent protests after Papuan students suffered... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3033611/four-steps-jokowi-save-indonesian-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/opinion/article/3033611/four-steps-jokowi-save-indonesian-democracy?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 19 Oct 2019 23:45:04 +0000 When Indonesians head to the polls next Wednesday for what is expected to be the world’s biggest direct presidential election, 70 per cent of its 193 million registered voters are expected to cast their ballots in a single day. Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, wears its hard-fought democracy with ease. I witnessed this during each of its previous three presidential elections – in 2004, 2009 and 2014 – and again in recent weeks as I journeyed across rural and urban Java – the... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3005688/indonesia-election-prabowo-versus-widodo-its-islamic-statehood?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3005688/indonesia-election-prabowo-versus-widodo-its-islamic-statehood?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 12 Apr 2019 04:00:11 +0000 The recent clashes in northwestern Myanmar between Muslim Rohingya insurgents and the country’s military and police, which erupted on August 25, have already sown the seeds of a regional sectarian and humanitarian crisis. The violence, part of much wider, longer-running unrest in Rakhine state, caused 400 civilian deaths according to official counts, and displaced at least 270,000 people, many of whom are now desperately short of food and water. In response, sentiment against Buddhist-majority... https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2110418/asias-palestine-myanmars-rohingya-stateless-persecuted-and-new?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2110418/asias-palestine-myanmars-rohingya-stateless-persecuted-and-new?utm_source=rss_feed Sat, 09 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000