Globalization

BY STEFAN NORGAARD On February 15, Cyril Ramaphosa assumed the office of South African President after an embattled, beleaguered Jacob Zuma finally resigned. Ramaphosa has an opportunity to lead South Africa toward better democratic governance, improved service delivery, and greater equity. On economic policy, he can thread the needle between sound fiscal management and growth-oriented […]

Perhaps it is time to ask if Mahmoud Abbas, now 82 and in the fourteenth year of his original four-year term in office, should work harder to gain strong domestic support for a sustained international campaign against the Israeli occupation.

The rise of English usage at home and proliferation of non-Tamil Indian languages have raised questions about Tamil’s relevance in today’s Singapore. Bhargav Sri Ganesh reminds us of the importance of the language, and makes a number of recommendations to strengthen Tamil’s position in Singapore.

Public spaces are under appreciated in their impact on society, Nur Atiqa Asri writes. Based on her evaluations of public spaces in Singapore regularly used by migrant workers, she argues that democratizing our public spaces can help address the emerging fault lines between migrant workers and locals in Singapore’s social fabric.

JMEPP’s Regional Editor for Egypt Elissa Miller sat down to interview Darko Mocibob, Deputy Director of the Middle East and West Asia Division of The United Nation’s Department of Political Affairs.

Yet again, a refugee crisis in Southeast Asia has concerned the world. In Singapore, however, the Government’s usual rejection of an asylum policy has hardly been questioned- unusual for a nation with thriving and critical online discourse of issues. Theophilus Kwek argues that other options are possible- and questions the assumptions that make us shy away from them.

Turkey’s relationship with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is in trouble. Yet it behooves NATO to ensure that Turkey remains a loyal member.

BY ALEXANDER MEDGETT In March 2017, Germany’s foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, stated that the two percent of GDP defense spending goals agreed upon by NATO members at the 2006 Riga summit were ‘totally unrealistic’ for Germany. Gabriel’s statement comes in light of Rex Tillerson’s recent appeal that all NATO member states should remain committed to […]

Very rich, heavily armed states are engaged in brinkmanship in the world’s most conflict-prone region. This doesn’t end well – for anyone.

“Knowing where you are going,” declared Minister for Foreign Affairs S. Rajaratnam in the 1970s, “is more important than knowing where you came from” (Tarulevicz 2009, 415). So convinced was he by this maxim that he echoed this exact sentiment a decade later in an article for The Straits Times, where he extolled the merits […]

We’ve been extraordinary in economic development. We can be as good at defeating xenophobia. BY ROYCE QUEK Rome wasn’t built in a day: and it also wasn’t built by the people and riches of its own lands. Instead, its armies conquered Greece, North Africa and Asia Minor through the manpower of not just Romans, but the many Roman allies: fellow Italian cities which had been subjugated by Rome and were forced to give soldiers to the Roman war machine. With this strategy of co-opting other cities into its growing dominion, Rome swept all before it. But the Italians weren’t happy …

Relooking Cultural Integration and Cosmopolitanism in Singapore From the rash of online sentiments directed against foreigners during the 2011 General Elections through the Anton Casey, Ello Ed Munsel Bello, and Sun Xu incidents, it might appear to some observers that xenophobia has finally taken root in Singaporean society. Is the apparent level of antipathy some […]