Diplomacy & Crisis News

The government needs to involve more academic institutions, think-tanks, and technical bodies in policymaking.

Myanmar’s “president” is embarking on his first official visit to an ASEAN country since his appointment in April.

The West Papua National Liberation Army has a history of targeting aircraft servicing remote parts of the Papuan highlands.

What Thucydides really thought about power.

What America’s armed forces can—and cannot—do for democracy.

China's government is pushing hard for the resumption of the $3.6 billion project, which was suspended in 2011 amid widespread public opposition.

Due to Government policy, Canada experiencing little needed economic relief, despite having one of the world’s largest oil reserves and high international oil and gas prices in 2026.

The existence of democracies in human civilisations is not something that came about by accident or is naturally occurring in most parts of the globe. On many occasions, Ancient Greek civilisations who established complex and meaningful measures to balance the powers of their societies lost their democratic traditions to despots, warlords, and foreign empires. Democracy can take generations to form, requires much evolution to become fair and just, and can be extinguished in less than one generation.

The Greek democratic idealists are the progenitors of modern Western civilisations, enshrining a heritage that continuously challenges limitations present in establishing a true government for the people. What still exists as part of many Constitutions of Commonwealth nations is the Magna Carta. The existence of this foundational document of British style democracy limited the power of the King/Queen to take the property of a citizen without just cause as far back as the 1200s. Property rights enabled citizens to hold wealth and legal title, a means to defends ones interests as a legal defense could now be funded. These rights were specific to defend a lone citizen’s interests, even against agents of the King or an oppressive state Government. The challenge the Royals had over generations of British history was to maintain and further entrench their power to rule, giving way to government mechanisms and institutions that were designed and effective in keeping absolute power away from the King in the form of representative Parliaments and independent courts. While the King is now more of a formal title and is limited by informal Customary Laws on their power over Government, they still maintain the legal authority to rule as one, while the legal customs and traditions ensure that no despotic rule should come to the realm, be it a King, Queen, Prime Minister or General.

A shameful revelation has recently come upon the legal and customary traditions of rule in the Parliamentary system in Canada. While much scandal has been brought to the Parliament in England, Canada had the unfortunate fate of taking on a seasoned political class that had contributed a great deal to the current state of affairs in the United Kingdom. The recent act by a Minority Government, one that did not earn enough votes to have a Majority claim in Parliament, was to offer political and possibly other tokens to Opposition Members of Parliament in order to claim an unelected Majority Government. While technically an MP is permitted to cross to another party for reasons of Conscious moral objections, using the claim that recent voter support wished the MP to leave to another party is an insult to 800 years of Parliamentary Democracy.

The leader of the Governing party, a seasoned political agent and dual national of the British Government for many years, likely knew or should have known of the traditions of the British Parliamentary Democracy inherited by all Commonwealth nations. Starting with the Magna Carta and evolving into modern Constitutional Law, the British Constitution is a collection of Acts, Human Rights Legislation, and Customary Norms and Practices that establish fairness in society. In this tradition, most Commonwealth countries are formed on the Customary Laws and Traditions of their Parliamentary heritage, with the Customs and Traditions being the Constitutional norms that maintain liberty, freedom and equity among all citizens in the Parliament’s realm. When your vote is simply traded away for personal gains by a sitting MP a year after an election, it is an offense to the Constitutional norms since Magna Carta, norms which were fought over for generations as the Crown tried to re-establish absolutist power. Using a new 1982 Constitution as a means to remove Customary Laws has ill effect, as it has just enshrined discrimination to the gain of political elites, and could serve to open Parliamentarians to outside influences by foreign entities harmful to Canadian society. When those actions give a Government Majority power, without the votes supporting the Prime Minister or their party, its offensive to the traditions of fairness and equity in the realm and sullies Parliament with a Dirty Majority Government that citizens have no confidence will be limited in its reach. While Canada always had a Monarch, there is no appetite for rulers without earned votes, as that is more of a tradition that ended democratic rule in ancient Greece than something formed in a modern Parliamentary system.

A unique feature of the British Parliamentary tradition and the English Courts that are designed to limit despotic power is the use of Laws of Equity in the legal system, a prized value system from their heritage. While Customary Laws can be abused, and look to have been in this recent case, a legal precedent of applying hard laws with fairness and justice in mind is often applied in the Courts. Taking the Government to court and applying the Law of Equity over the manner in which a Government Majority was manipulated away from voters is an important case that needs to be brought to justice, not just in the case of Canada, but in similar political examples throughout the English Courts as well.

Despite 800 years of challenges to despotic powers against Kings and Queens being the British tradition, a Prime Minister with a Majority Government has more official power than any President in Republican systems in the Americas and Europe. It is the duty of every Parliamentarian and every Commonwealth citizen to honour Parliament by fighting for its democratic traditions, even when a party and Minister has dishonoured the Customary Laws of the country. That is the tradition of the British in Europe, of Canada, and of all rulers since the Magna Carta in 1215. If they can take your vote, knowingly take away Equity established since 1215, they will surely go as far as taking your other rights as well, even your Property. This Tyranny of a Political Majority is all that can come from Canada’s Dirty Parliamentary Majority Government. As it has always been, a community can only thrive when their votes matter.

The rupture between Afghanistan’s Taliban and their erstwhile allies in Pakistan continues to cause suffering on both sides of the border.

Czechia’s new government has changed its tone on Taiwan, but left most of the substance of the relationship intact.

Comment résumer un livre qui semble avoir été écrit dans le but même d'en rendre impossible tout résumé ou de rendre caduc tout point de vue surplombant sur la vie ? Nos vies ne sont-elles pas faites d'une tout autre matière — vertige et mémoire ? « Pittsburgh, 1939-1942… Descendant dans la rue (…) / Roumanie, Littérature, Autobiographie, Fiction

It’s not “whole of society” – and calling it that risks discrimination against ethnic Chinese.

Voici l'histoire d'un retour. Un retour au Kosovo, à deux moments très différents. Le narrateur, tout jeune, y retourne avec ses parents en 1996 — deux ans avant le conflit armé. Adulte, c'est dans le Kosovo d'après-guerre qu'il revient, en compagnie de sa mère. Petit, il n'avait pas de souvenir (…) / Kosovo, Littérature, Migrations, Violence

The political momentum for the Northern Sea Route is real. However, the actual data looks a lot less rosy.

India has spent the last 16 years paying for its trade deal with ASEAN. The India-EU FTA would not repeat those mistakes.

La cité phocéenne aurait-elle définitivement basculé du côté de la « ville-spectacle » ? Plusieurs travaux révèlent qu'au sein du Marseille populaire le mistral de la résistance souffle encore. Dans une somme impressionnante, l'essayiste Alèssi Dell'Umbria retrace plus de mille ans d'histoire (…) / France, Ville, Histoire, Logement, Urbanisme

As the country celebrates its past, let it also recognize the place where its future security begins: an island that has given more to the United States than most Americans will ever know.

Italy is making an unexpectedly assertive return to Southeast Asia – not through trade or development aid, but through defense diplomacy. 

India’s Act East Policy should be judged by its ability to change from articulating strategy to putting that strategy into practice in the Northeast, via BIMSETC.

Real strategic stability starts with recognizing mutual vulnerability.

Funding for drones became much more hotly discussed in the wake of KMT chair Cheng Li-wun’s trip to the United States last month.