Written by: Garrett Halak February 1st marks the one-year anniversary of the Myanmar military’s seizure of power and a prompt end to the country’s democratization process. The WIRe covered the inception of Tatmadaw’s rise to power in a previous article here. This coup d’etat occurred just prior to the second five-year term of Suu Kyi…
Category: South-Eastern Asia
The Invisible Cost of School Closures
Written by: Kamika Patel The tremendous impact of the global COVID-19 school closures on young people worldwide is detrimental to children’s academic wellbeing, social development, and future career prospects. The extended school closures since March 2020 left more than 1.6 billion children out of school during the beginning months of the pandemic. Globally, around 1…
The Jakarta Game
Written by: Nils Peterson As the United States completed its military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Indo-Pacific began to loom ever larger in American geopolitical strategy. War is a two-sided game, however, and military conflict with terrorist groups like al-Qaeda will not end simply because the United States took its ball and went home from Afghanistan….
The Coup D’etat that Halted Myanmar’s Democratic Rise
Written by: Garrett Halak With many clinging onto Myanmar’s young democracy and its promise of free elections, the citizens of the country have taken to the streets. Prompted by the coup d’etat that occurred on February 1st, Myanmar’s quasi-democracy is watching its own demise as the Tatmadaw regains political power. The Southeast Asian country of…
State Sovereignty in the Face of Genocide
Written by: McKenna Ross The Rohingya are a primarily Muslim group of people in majority Buddhist Myanmar. Persecution against them began in the 1970s, when the state government refused to acknowledge the Rohingya as a legitimate ethnic group of Myanmar. This made them into a stateless people and therefore not eligible for state protection. This…
The Crumbling East Asian Alliance
Written by: Michael Sauer Escalating tensions between Japan and South Korea, foundational members of the East Asian Alliance, are threatening to upend the region’s geopolitical balance. The alliance of three liberal democracies, comprising of the United States, South Korea, and Japan, serves as the bedrock of security, prosperity, and peace in East Asia. Conjoined despite…
The US Response to the Sultan of Brunei’s Human Rights Violations
Written by: Thomas Quinn Brunei is a small Southeast Asian country bordering the South China Sea with a population of 450 thousand people and a landmass smaller than the size of Delaware. Its per capita GDP ranks it as one of the wealthiest countries in the world, and the monarch of the country lives an…
Horror in Indonesia
Written by: Chandrea Baster On the 28th of September, a powerful earthquake and tsunami shook the small island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. The massive 7.5 earthquake triggered a mounting tsunami that had waves up to six meters high. Nearly two and a half weeks after the natural disaster, rescue operations are still underway as the…
Hip-Hop & Hegemony
Written by: Sam Buisman How does the Trans-Pacific Partnership relate to rapper Rich Brian’s debut album “Amen” topping the iTunes charts? How can the Paris Climate Summit explain Keith Ape scoring 52 million views on his music video for “It G Ma”? And what does Chinese foreign direct investment in Africa have to do with…
Who’s Sitting in the Driver’s Seat Now?
Written by: Robert Ryu On March 5, 2018, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea dispatched an envoy led by Chung Eui-young, South Korea’s national security adviser, to North Korea. The envoy followed Kim Jong-un’s sister’s visit, Kim Yo-jong, to South Korea for her attendance at the Olympics opening ceremony. During her visit, she delivered Mr….
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