Foreign Policy

As the Biden administration begins its second year in office, it is evident that its focus on the Indo-Pacific and geopolitical competition against China remains uneven. There are two small but strategically important countries that have been all but ignored by the administration so far: ...

When investors in 2019 announced plans to build a massive hydroelectric dam on the Mekong River just upstream from Luang Prabang, the ancient royal capital of the former Kingdom of Laos, they drew a slew of criticism. So much criticism, in fact, that UNESCO—which has ...

The table we’re writing on is made of rosewood, the most trafficked wildlife product in the world. For months, we’ve been researching the uptick in logging and poaching, which are gradually emptying out the forests here in Cambodia as well as neighboring Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, ...

In recent weeks, Nandar has taken to cycling. Armed with a hard hat, a face mask, and a paper sign stuck to her bike showing the words “No to dictatorship, no to patriarchy,” the 26-year-old feminist activist spends most days traversing Yangon, Myanmar, as part ...

Over the past year, severe drought exacerbated by upstream hydropower dams has throttled agricultural productivity, devastated fisheries, and threatened the livelihoods of millions of people in the Mekong River Basin. The coronavirus pandemic is compounding this situation, disrupting supply chains and increasing price volatility for ...

Eleven massive dams straddle the mighty Mekong River before it leaves China and flows into Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and on into Vietnam. Yet I have long been skeptical  that China could use those 11 upstream dams, massive as they are, to turn off the ...

A feature article by Alexander Zaitchick that critically examines the importance of why indigenous people, not environmentalists, are the key to protecting the world’s most precious ecosystems. Read more ...

Thirty million people depend for a living on the Mekong, the great Asian river that runs through Southeast Asia from its origins in the snowfields of Tibet to its end in the delta region of Vietnam, where it fertilizes one of the world’s richest agricultural ...

The aid community often ignores the wishes of the very people it’s supposed to be helping. The world needs a more bottom-up approach to development. Almost a year ago, the United Nations set the Sustainable Development Goals, an ambitious blueprint for governments and financiers to ...