The Diplomat

Rohingya activists have accused the Myanmar Press Council, a quasi-government media adjudication and ethics body,  of defending the practice of using the word “Bengali” to refer to the Rohingya. Rights groups and Rohingya advocates argue that the term amounts to “hate speech” and that it is ...

On January 1 of this year, a new cybersecurity law entered into effect in Vietnam after its passage in the Vietnamese National Assembly in June 2018. The law (original; unofficial translation) had a number of concerning elements, which included granting the government relatively unchecked authorities to ...

One of the significant but under noticed developments at this year’s ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting-related (ADMM) meetings in Bangkok was Japan’s launching of a sequel to its defense initiative for Southeast Asian states, termed Vientiane Vision 2.0. The development once again put the focus on ...

For more than two decades, communities in Southeast Asia have been facing threats from the expansion of hydropower development. Dams have been justified by the governments of Southeast Asian countries as the main development agenda, which would generate large amounts of income and contribute to ...

Thailand plans to seek talks with the United States on a decision to end preferential trade privileges on a range of Thai exports including seafood, officials said Monday. Keerati Rushchano, acting director-general of the Commerce Ministry’s Foreign Trade Department, said his office has been warning exporters ...

The Lao government aspires to gain centrality in the Greater Mekong Subregion via new infrastructure; but at what price? The Lao government is strongly pushing ahead with different projects to better connect the country to the main transport networks of the region and integrate it into ...

The Mekong is reeling from the combined onslaught of climate change, sand-mining, and incessant damming of the river, which combined to help cause the worst drought recorded in over 100 years in July. “This is the worst ecological disaster in history of the of Mekong region,” declared Thai ...

In recent weeks, the Mekong River, one of the world’s longest and largest rivers, which has been under peril due to a confluence of development, demographic, and geopolitical pressures, has been at its lowest levels in a century. Dams upstream are holding back much needed water ...

Education for Nature – Vietnam’s (ENV) Wildlife Crime Unit recently enabled the rescue of the “Nghe An Three” in one of the most protracted and violent bear bile rescues to date. This positive outcome is offset by the knowledge that 10 bears were left behind despite video recordings of bile ...

When it comes to the effects of global climate change, Vietnam is one of the world’s most at-risk nations. Rising sea levels threaten to inundate both the Mekong and Red River Deltas, potentially impacting tens of millions of people. Vietnam is also one of the fastest ...