Carnival of Chaos

Published on Nov 16, 2024 by Luke Hunt

Foreign relations was never a strong point for Donald Trump and his “America first” policy, and his return to the White House signals a return of China policy to center stage, forcing smaller countries to play a wily game if they are to win his attention.That means a further loss of relevance for multilateralism and trade blocs like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN), with Trump’s first two years in office expected to follow his first term, which was characterized as a “Carnival of Chaos” with decisions enforced in an ad hoc manner by presidential decree.As Keith Richburg, a long-standing East Asian correspondent for The Washington Post, puts it, Trump’s transactional style of negotiating, coupled with a dislike of multilateralism....

Witness to Genocide

Published on Nov 12, 2024 by Luke Hunt

Journalists and filmmakers Am and Steve Sandford have covered Southeast Asia as a couple for the last 30 years and have been intimately involved with the Rohingya in Myanmar since 2009, when members of the Muslim minority group began fleeing their homes.That culminated in a mass exodus amid an alleged genocide of the Rohingya in 2017, when more than 700,000 fled into Bangladesh. The Rohingya’s plight has gone from bad to worse amid the civil war in Myanmar following the coup d’etat in early 2021.The Sandfords have released a book – “Witness to Genocide, Chasing the Rohingya in Southeast Asia” – that details their experiences in gathering evidence. The well-written chronicle leaves readers with no doubt about the tragedies inflicted....

Asian Logistics

Published on Oct 29, 2024 by Luke Hunt

Why do Southeast Asian farmers get paid so little? How can people respond to the immediate impact of climate change? What must governments in ASEAN do if they’re serious about cross-border trade? Why is Cambodia building a 180-kilometer canal at a cost of $1.7 billion?Chris Catto-Smith is a logistics specialist, a career which began with the Royal Australian Air Force in the 1970s. He moved to the private sector and then took his experience to Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands encouraging disadvantaged communities to develop value chains and new routes to markets.He spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt in Melbourne, where he explained the issues confronting farmers and fisherfolk who are struggling to make ends meet and discussed what....

Nic Dunlop Photography

Published on Aug 31, 2024 by Luke Hunt

Nic Dunlop ranks among the best and most prominent photographers in Southeast Asia and he was the first journalist to track down and interview the former Khmer Rouge commandant from the S-21 extermination camp that operated in Cambodia under Pol Pot.Dunlop believes in the language of photography but like many of his peers, the Irishman is increasingly annoyed by the state of press photography and where it is going.He recently penned an article for Light Rocket in which he sharply criticized the judging and the standards of many entrants at this year’s World Press Photo awards.The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt spoke with Dunlop from his home in Bangkok about deteriorating industry standards and what exactly ‘the press’ means anymore. He also....

Sean Turnell on Myanmar

Published on Aug 30, 2024 by Luke Hunt

Australian economist Sean Turnell has released his latest book “Best Laid Plans,” detailing his efforts to lift Myanmar out of deep poverty as a policy advisor to Aung San Suu Kyi before she was ousted by a military coup in early 2021, when both of them were jailed.He spent 650 days behind bars as Myanmar was tipped into civil war by a military that ended an all-too-brief experiment with democracy and has since proven itself as ill-prepared on the battlefield as it is on the economic front with the nation’s finances in tatters.Turnell spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about his new book and the technocrats who lined up and prepared the country for trade and investment with the outside....