Edbert Gani Suryahudaya is a PhD student at the University of Toronto and a researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies Indonesia On 22 May 2019, a furious crowd of protesters stormed the office of Indonesia’s Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) in response to the recently announced election results that granted Joko Widodo (Jokowi)…
Soumyadeep Chowdhury is a postgraduate candidate in political science at St. Xavier’s College, University of Calcutta Since 2014, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won more elections than it has lost, returning with an even larger majority in the 2019 polls, signalling a paradigmatic shift in Indian politics away from multi-party coalition politics. However, its…
Lt Col (Retd) Philip Holmes OBE, Founder and CEO of Pipal Tree Pipal Tree and its Nepal implementing partners, Mithila Wildlife Trust (MWT) and Lily’s Leaves have been pioneering the use of the rapid-reforestation Miyawaki Method in Nepal since December 2021. The results have been dramatic – far exceeding our expectations – but does this…
An interview with author Larisa Brown about her new book The Gardener of Lashkar Gah, the powerful true story of the Afghans left behind as the Taliban retook Afghanistan.
Jenny Wu On June 15, 2022, the art exhibition Mirror Image: A Transformation of Chinese Identity opened at Asia Society Museum in New York. The exhibit featured seven artists born in China in the ’80s who work in new media, performance, and installation. Curated by Barbara Pollack, the author of the 2018 book Brand New…
Charlie Mackenzie Portlock, Chairman, Partners for Progress Nepal is home to the most formidable mountain range in the world. It annually welcomes upwards of a million tourists to engage in adventurous sports, trekking and to visit its remarkable UNESCO world heritage sites. Its unique culture, hospitality and environmental diversity make it an attractive tourist destination…
Professor Charles J Sullivan, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan In early January 2022, the Republic of Kazakhstan (once regarded for its political stability and economic development in a conflict-prone and impoverished region) suffered an unexpected and unprecedented bout of political violence. Based upon my initial analysis elsewhere, it appears that “an elite faction within the government seized…
Sophie Ibbotson, a Trustee of the RSAA, reports on progress in combatting cultural theft Indiana Jones built his reputation single-handedly rescuing priceless antiquities from villainous grave robbers. But his real-life counterparts fighting the lucrative international trade in illicitly trafficked artefacts are a far more diverse crowd drawn from law enforcement agencies, museums, academic institutions, and…
DR BIJAN OMRANI, EDITOR OFÂ ASIAN AFFAIRS, THE RSAA JOURNAL, REPORTS ON THE LATEST ONLINE EXPERT DISCUSSION On 6 January, the RSAA was addressed by Eyck Freymann, a US scholar currently at Balliol College Oxford, on the Chinese presentation and ideology behind its One Belt One Road (or Belt and Road) initiative. Freymann is the author…
Dr Bijan Omrani, Editor of Asian Affairs, the RSAA journal, reports on the latest online expert discussion On 27th November, the RSAA hosted an online panel discussion about the latest developments in Hong Kong. The panellists were Martin Purbrick, a former HK police officer and writer of several articles for Asian Affairs who has just taken…
