Canberra, 6 November 2019 International power balance is primarily based on claiming ascendancy on the world stage, which in turn is driven by political imperatives, the prime mover in all initiatives towards claiming power. After the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia assumed the mantle of Soviet power, but struggled to prove itself as a […]
Continue reading
Archive | Asia Pacific RSS feed for this section
The South China Sea Arbitration: The Court Rules – But Who Will Enforce the Writ?
August 1, 2016 
0 Comments
Canberra, 1 August 2016 On 12 July 2016, the Tribunal constituted under Annex VII to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) located at The Hague in the Netherlands passed judgement on the case of the Republic of the Philippines V. the People’s Republic of China. The Award, concerning the historic […]
Continue readingPatience and Denial: China’s Dual Strategies
March 1, 2016 0 Comments
Canberra, 1 March 2106 While the world has been busy and preoccupied with the conflict in the Middle-East, the refugee problem that it has spawned, finding a solution to the intransigent Syrian issue and coming to terms with the rise and rise of militant Islam, the South China Sea has percolated to becoming an […]
Continue readingINDIA-PAKISTAN RELATIONS
June 3, 2014 3 Comments
Canberra, 03 June 2014 [This is an edited and abridged version of a Public Presentation that I gave to the Faculty of Art at the University of Western Australia, at their invitation, on 20 May 2014] Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Before I start my presentation, I must thank the Faculty of Arts of the […]
Continue readingCHINA’S ADIZ: A PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS
December 19, 2013 1 Comment
Canberra, 19 December 2013 The so-called US pivot to Asia has brought the Asia-Pacific region into global focus and highlighted the fact that along with its economic dynamism, there are also political upheavals and turmoil in the region. Significantly the common cause of this turbulence is the activities of the People’s Republic of China, by […]
Continue readingCHINA’S ADIZ: HAS EXCESSIVE ASSERTIVENESS BACKFIRED?
November 30, 2013 2 Comments
Singapore, 30 November 2013 Arguments regarding who has the right to fly where and when is nothing new in the aviation world. For example, air space control issues have been acute over Cyprus for a number of years with rival air traffic controllers from the Greek and Turkish sides of the island providing conflicting information […]
Continue readingINDIA IN THE 21 CENTURY: AN EMERGING GLOBAL POWER?
June 21, 2013 0 Comments
Canberra, 21 June 2013 [This is an abridged version of a presentation that I gave to the University of Western Australia in Perth, on 9 May 2013.] Introduction “India is at once a rising power with an expanding middle-class; and a poor, unequal and misgoverned country.” India’s civilisation is one of the oldest […]
Continue readingSOUTH-EAST ASIAN PRESSURE POINTS
February 12, 2013 0 Comments
Canberra, 12 February 2013 South East Asia is made up of a number of nations, most of them geographically of small to medium size and varying in economic development from being poor to developing and to growing, if such an economic continuum can be coined. The disparities in development and standard of living between the […]
Continue readingTHE CONTESTED SOUTH CHINA SEA
December 28, 2012 0 Comments
Singapore, 28 December 2012 The on-going dispute regarding control of the South China Sea can be traced to the Treaty of Tordesillas signed in 1494, according to which the then ‘global’ powers Spain and Portugal divided the newly ‘discovered’ lands outside Europe between themselves in an arbitrary manner along a meridian about 2200 kilometres west […]
Continue reading
Sanu Kainikara 
Recent Comments