With the fifth anniversary of the China-Britain Comprehensive Strategic Partnership approaching, it is remarkable to see how dramatically this much-heralded “golden era” of relations has turned into one of deepening mistrust and bitter acrimony. In the past few weeks, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has banned Huawei from involvement in Britain’s 5G networks, suspended its...Read More

The Successful Front-line States Official date continues to suggest that while China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam to have imposed significant control over Covid 19, they are far from eliminating it and continue to take measures to deal with generally highly localised spikes in cases.[i] These include: The closure of Da Nang to...Read More

The current health crisis has exacerbated the rivalry between great powers. But it has also given Europe a few more opportunities to engage with Russia. In a world increasingly framed by great power rivalry, deepening ties between Moscow and Beijing have been one of the most salient features of global politics in recent years. Yet...Read More

We appear to have entered a new Cold War between the US and China. There are a number of fronts across a widening battlefield. One of them concerns the issue of the provision of 5G equipment to countries, including the UK, by Huawei. The UK government appeared to have taken the decision, advised by its...Read More

The Chinese government’s announcement of a controversial new national security law for Hong Kong has encountered distinctively restrained responses from policymakers and officials in Brussels and other European Union (EU) capitals in contrast to combative countermeasures coming out of Washington DC and London.  As a result of US President Donald Trump’s numerous threats of withdrawals...Read More

The ferocity of the Coronavirus pandemic has affected the developed and less developed regions of the globe, both urban and rural, and the activities we all take for granted have come to a standstill. This article, however, will focus on the already-discernible impacts and longer-term implications of the pandemic on Bangladesh. The key questions that...Read More

This is a top down view of the progress of the Covid-19 virus and the global pandemic. It summarizes information obtained from John Hopkins University, and presented in a different form. The world is divided into 8 regions, and the analysis shows what has been happening to them in the period from March to mid...Read More

Since late March, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam have imposed further Covid-19 related restriction in responses to renewed concerns over case levels. This has attracted considerable attention and raised fears of a second wave of the virus sweeping through these countries. However, other than for Japan and Singapore, the increases have been...Read More

During the Cold-War years, Europe and India engaged with the Soviet Union at very different levels. On many occasions they found themselves supporting the opposite side. Western Europe was part of the American led western alliance. India, however, had very close strategic and economic ties with the USSR, which were institutionalised through the 1971 Indo-Soviet...Read More

Migrating to the Middle East in search for economic opportunities can sometimes pose a serious risk for the hundreds and thousands of women from Asia seeking employment in private households across the region, but especially in the Gulf States, as domestic workers. Although female migrant workers in general can be vulnerable to abuse and exploitation,...Read More