Via the South China Morning Post, commentary on lagging Chinese interest in Thailand’s proposed infrastructure opportunity: The Land Bridge project, a proposed route for shipping that could bypass the Malacca Strait, is being shopped by the Thai government as it seeks financing If built, the bridge could reshape the economy of Southeast Asia – but […]
Read more »Courtesy of The Africa Report, an article on the potential of Africa’s secondary cities: Frequently neglected by authorities, the continent’s second cities will nevertheless absorb a large part of its demographic transition. More agile than metropolises, they are changing the face of Africa. The secondary city is defined above all by what it is not: […]
Read more »Via Modern Diplomacy, commentary on possible outcomes if Indonesia were to join the BRICS: Before we delve further into the complexity of the possibilities that could occur if Indonesia joins BRICS, it is important to know what BRICS is and the agenda it has. BRICS is an association of 5 countries consisting of Brazil, Russia, […]
Read more »Courtesy of Bloomberg, a look at China’s strategy to use remote regions to host vast green projects; Out of the rolling yellow dunes of the Kubuqi desert arises what appears to be an oasis, shimmering blue beneath the northern China sky. Row after row of hundreds of solar panels cover this otherwise barren stretch of […]
Read more »Via the East Asia Forum, commentary on China’s BRI future: Not so long ago, countries were ecstatic about the potential of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a mega-infrastructure scheme launched in 2013 that would connect the world through ports, power grids, railways, roads and telecommunications networks. Western pundits worried that BRI projects were pulling […]
Read more »Via the Review of African Political Economy, commentary on how the ongoing crisis in the Horn of Africa can be linked to a violent transnational extractive economy that links the Horn and the Gulf States. The authors note that Sudan and Somalia, two countries that have suffered sustained violence in recent years, were together supplying 90% […]
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