ISDP Voices

Niklas Swanström anticipates China’s reaction to the forthcoming verdict by the arbitration tribunal on its claims in the South China Sea. The likely fallout throws into sharp relief the need for an effective regional security structure to manage differences, he argues.  A verdict from the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague on the legal status of […]

Zarinam Turdieva cautions against automatically equating the growing prominence of Islam in Kyrgyzstan with extremism. Rather it is Islamophobia which has greater potential to incite the very radicalization that politicians and other observers fear. Islam has played an increasingly significant role in Kyrgyzstan since independence with a surge of interest among the Kyrgyz population in […]

The new Myanmar government faces a final decision on the highly charged issue of the Chinese-backed Myitsone Dam. Having taken office two months ago, Myanmar’s new government faces an important decision on one of the country’s largest foreign investments, the controversial Chinese-backed Myitsone Dam. The previous government under President U Thein Sein stalled the mega […]

Maria Rosaria Coduti looks back at North Korea’s Party Congress last month and tries to distill what we learnt from it. The 7th Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) Congress in North Korea, convened on May 6, was the first of its kind since 1980, ending with a massive civilian parade on May 9 in Pyongyang. […]