Opinion

Brennan O’Connor SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Investor confidence in the long-delayed Dawei special economic zone (DSEZ) is growing after Japan signed on as a third equal partner with Myanmar and Thailand this December. Japan’s backing may finally kick start construction of the billion dollar project that has been crippled by funding shortfalls since 2013. If it’s ever finished, the deep-seaport ...

In a number of recent discussions I’ve been a part of, “nationalism” has been repeatedly raised to describe China’s policies toward its territorial disputes with its neighbors. Also, this term has often appeared in international media stories about China’s stance in the East and South China Seas disputes. The idea is that “nationalism” is unnecessarily — or even dangerously — ...

One hopes that Park Geun-hye and Shinzo Abe enjoyed their meeting last week with Barack Obama, because the show of unity that the South Korean, Japanese, and U.S. leaders displayed in opposition to North Korea’s nuclear defiance would simply not be possible in a hypothetical Trump administration. Instead, Donald Trump, the front-runner to serve as the Republican candidate in this ...

Mariah A.V. Hays / Hannah E. Haegeland SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS The fourth and likely final Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) again highlighted the greatest security threat to the world: nuclear terrorism. U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders in the Summit have consistently championed the “central and unique role“ of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as the lead ...

Khang Vu SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS As the race to the White House is heating up, Asian countries are paying close attention to the candidates’ foreign policy platforms. For the last few weeks, international headlines have focused on Donald Trump’s vision of a nuclearized Northeast Asia and his proposal to withdraw U.S. troops from South Korea and Japan if the ...

The five-day visit of the Custodian of The Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, to Egypt is seen as Riyadh’s political and economic support for Cairo to overcome current economic and political challenges. It also reflects the regional role of the two countries: Saudi Arabia, which is the top Arab economy, and Egypt, the ...

Europe’s economic malaise has a lot to do with its crippled banking system. Making that system more fragile seems like the wrong way to address the issue. With the European Central Bank taking interest rates deeper into negative territory and the euro-area economy languishing, investors have become more concerned about the future profitability — and perhaps the viability — of ...

Asia and the Pacific are recognized for leadership in global output, trade, and development. The region has a new opportunity to lead on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – a multidimensional, multisectoral, and multiagency undertaking. In 2016, the first year of implementation for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), our region faces significant challenges: prioritizing SDG implementation; pace and sequencing; ...

Later this month, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter will travel to the Philippines as part of a broader Asia trip. His upcoming visit highlights how the Southeast Asian state – long belittled as one of Asia’s weakest militaries and Washington’s laggard alliance – has in fact grown to become a critical part of America’s ongoing rebalance to the region. Although ...

For nearly a week late last month, a modicum of peace appeared to have settled over El Salvador. After the country’s leading criminal gangs called a unilateral truce, violent crime suddenly plunged, and the homicide rate fell to around nine a day. If that doesn’t sound like much to cheer about, consider this: The small Central American nation of about ...