With a lot of fanfare, China has expanded its flagship Belt and Road Initiative to a vast swath of new territory far removed from the Middle Kingdom — the Arctic. A detailed white paper last month outlined plans for a “Polar Silk Road” that would link Asia to Europe across the frozen far north. As has […]
Read MoreRecent reports
Recent reports by Humphrey Hawksley for the BBC, YaleGlobal Online, Asian Affairs, and Nikkei Asian Review.
Brexit Britain’s troubled quest to ‘Asianize’ the Commonwealth
As the U.K. reaches a critical phase in its negotiations to leave the European Union, Theresa May’s government is engaged in a desperate hunt for alternative partners. London has seized on the Commonwealth of Nations, formed out of the British Empire, as one way of strengthening its political and economic alliances outside the EU. On […]
Read MoreDemocracy in Kurdistan and Catalonia
In the early 1990s, as remnants of the Berlin Wall were transformed into a tourist attraction, there was a near-unchallenged presumption that governance, through the democratic will of the people, would underpin our future. Germany, once divided by two opposing ideologies, united under the democratic banner and countries that had mostly lived under Soviet control […]
Read MoreIslamist radicalisation
Humphrey Hawksley asks why Islamist radicalisation has impacted some countries more than others. When President George W Bush ordered troops into Afghanistan after the September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, the word ‘radicalisation’ was rarely, if ever, mentioned. Bush argued simply that terror was evil and needed to be stopped at source to […]
Read MoreFast, Furious or Fake News
LONDON: Disasters dominate the news agenda, with recent dystopian images of hurricanes raging in the Atlantic, earthquake-fractured streets in Mexico, apocalyptic flooding in South Asia and burning villages of Rohingya Muslims in scenes reminiscent of Cambodia’s killing fields. Advancing technology has changed how disasters are reported, but what attracts attention and how we react remain […]
Read MoreLessons of the opium wars
Humphrey Hawksley reports from the Opium War museum in southern China on the impact that Britain’s invasion in 1989 has on Beijing’s foreign policy today. Lessons of the opium wars
Read MoreTaiwan-China
How China handles it’s renegade province of Taiwan will not only determine its own ambition of reunification but will also be watched closely by the rest of the Asia-Pacific region. Humphrey Hawksley reports from the once heavily militarised Taiwanese island of Kinmen. China Has Chance to Undercut US by Wooing Taiwan
Read MoreAmerica’s Naval War College
Humphrey Hawksley reports from America’s Naval War College which is preparing for possible wars with China and Russia and working out a strategy that might avoid them.
Read MoreUK’s nuclear plant imbroglio fuels post-Brexit debate
Britain is putting down new markers on the global stage as it prepares to leave the European Union. But can it risk annoying China if it’s to succeed. Humphrey Hawksley – UK’s nuclear plant imbroglio fuels post-Brexit debate
Read MoreVietnam’s fishing war of the South China Sea
Vietnamese fishermen say they are being attacked by China with increasing regularity. Their boats have been rammed, equipment broken and crewmen beaten up. Vietnam accuses Beijing of trying to force them out of the South China Sea. Humphrey Hawksley and photographer Poulomi Basu went out on a boat with them. Beaten up by China for going fishing
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