Who Really Makes Your Gadgets Now?
Pick up your phone. Turn it over. Somewhere on the back, in letters small enough that most people never bother to read them, is a line that used to say almost the
Today: Aug 20, 2026
China’s Slowdown Isn’t a Blip. It’s a Warning.
For most of this year, Beijing’s economic managers have offered a familiar reassurance: growth is cooling, but it’s cooling in a controlled, deliberate way — the natural byproduct of a planned shift
India’s Structural Edge Over China
For four decades, “the China story” was the only story worth telling about Asian growth. A command economy poured concrete, wired factories, and moved hundreds of millions of people from farms to
The Sham Elections Won’t Buy Myanmar Legitimacy
When Senior General Min Aung Hlaing stepped off his aircraft at Bangkok’s Don Mueang Airport, inspectable under a full military honor guard and flanked by smiling Thai officials, the symbolism was unmistakable.
Pakistan’s Silent War on Its Own Territory
For two months, the mountain towns of Pakistan-administered Kashmir have been under a kind of siege that rarely makes it into Western headlines. Rangers have fired on unarmed crowds. Internet and mobile
India Is Quietly Splitting Into Multiple Silicon Valleys
For two decades, the story of India’s Global Capability Centres was really a story about two or three cities. Bengaluru ran the engineering. Hyderabad and the National Capital Region picked up much
Asia’s Race to Escape Energy Dependence
The recent conflict involving Iran has done far more than disrupt tanker traffic and lift fuel prices for a few weeks. It has triggered a deeper strategic reassessment across developing Asia, where
The Bailout That’s Bankrolling Repression
For decades, Pakistan has asked the world to view its troubles through a single lens: an existential rivalry with India that supposedly explains everything from its bloated defense budget to its periodic
The New Architects of the Indo-Pacific
For most of the postwar era, the map of Asian power ran through a familiar set of capitals: Washington, Beijing, Tokyo. India sat, geographically and strategically, off to the side—a subcontinental power
The Quiet Architecture of Power: What India’s Indo-Pacific Swing Really Means
When a head of government spends six days moving through three countries, it is tempting to file the trip under ceremony: handshakes, banquets, a joint statement or two, and a return home
How Pakistan Turned Its Courts Against Its Own People
In Pakistan, the courts were supposed to be the last line of defense against power. A new report shows how thoroughly that line has been erased. There is a particular kind of
Australia and India Just Struck the Deal Noone Saw Coming
Melbourne just hosted a quiet revolution in the Indo-Pacific, and it deserved louder applause than it got. When Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Narendra Modi finalized an administrative arrangement to begin uranium
Japan, India, and the Case for Trust as Strategy
There is a particular kind of diplomatic language that gets deployed when two countries want to signal that a relationship has moved from courtesy to consequence. This week in New Delhi, Japanese
