After all the claims and recriminations over the Iran nuclear deal, it boils down to whether a country really wants to have a deal or not.

While the West is distracted in the Gulf region and Ukraine, moves are afoot in parts of Asia and Europe to empower emerging regions in the future.

The European Union remains the world’s most successful regional organisation, for now, even when Europe is experiencing possibly its worst twin crises.

SOUTH-EAST Asia still holds the promise of peace, stability and prosperity, but this familiar condition now requires an unfamiliar caution.

The litmus test of how governments and populations treat refugees and how Myanmar treats minority groups, is the pathetic plight of the Rohingya.

Where conspiracy practice has already become widespread, typically for selfish and cynical purposes, conspiracy theories themselves are no longer necessary.

Despite problems among some countries in the region, Asean can be a catalyst for positive change when its citizens develop a shared sense of purpose.

To appreciate how issues today had developed from the past is also to understand how they are likely to develop in the future.

Asia’s need for better infrastructure and more development is too important to be held to ransom by outdated big power politics and petty posturing.

Countries supposedly fighting Da’ish (Islamic State) militants can begin to succeed only if they can acknowledge their weaknesses and errors, which still seems unlikely.

There is no new Cold War, at least not yet, unless the West is determined to pursue it over all other needs.

EVEN before Said and Cherif Kouachi had claimed allegiance to “al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” (AQAP) earlier this month in Paris, the network of transnational terrorism had been hazy enough.