I write articles, op-eds and essays in a range of global publications. I am a columnist for Foreign Policy, and have written for The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Sunday Times, Nikkei Asia, the Straits Times and others. A selection of some of my essays and reviews are below.
How coronavirus exposed the collapse of global leadership
Nikkei Asian ReviewCover story on a weak international pandemic response
Anwar Ibrahim’s Future
Nikkei Asian ReviewCover profile of Malaysia’s possible future PM
Didi Chuxing took on Uber and won. Now it’s taking on the world
WiredBacked by investment from some of the biggest global tech companies – including Apple, Tencent and Alibaba – Jean Liu’s Didi Chuxing defeated Uber in China.
Trump and Kim’s Secluded Singapore Pleasure Island
The New York TimesOn the roads just outside Singapore’s Capella Hotel last Friday, gardeners were replanting the flower beds and laborers were touching up road markings, shading their heads from the fierce midday heat.
Still Top Gun? What Tom Cruise’s new movie tells us about American power
FTTom Cruise’s latest blockbuster, Top Gun: Maverick, arrived in movie theatres this week with impeccable geopolitical timing.
Biden and Xi Are Doomed to Escalation
Foreign PolicyBoth the United States and China are adding yet more pressure to their already strained bilateral relationship.
U.S.-China De-Risking Will Inevitably Escalate
Foreign PolicyHow much de-risking will ever be enough? Kurt Campbell, U.S. President Joe Biden’s lead Asia diplomat, hinted in a recent interview that the United States was nearly done with new rules limiting Chinese access to technology and investment.
The U.S. Is Losing Its Military Edge in Asia, and China Knows It
The New York TimesA Chinese fighter jet veered in front of an Australian military surveillance aircraft over international waters in the South China Sea last month and released metallic debris that was sucked into the Australian plane’s engines.
China’s Radical New Vision Of Globalization
NoemaPresident Xi’s vision of “dual circulation” is a darkly pessimistic economic strategy, fit for a new Cold War.
Trump’s TikTok battle heralds the ugly birth of a new splinternet
WiredTikTok was conquering the world, until it became the victim of a new Cold War between China and Donald Trump, who wants it bought out – or shut down
James Crabtree interviews Raja Mohan
The world’s most important geopolitical relationship is clearly that between China and the United States. But over time India will grow into an important global power too, transforming Asia’s balance of power into a complex triangular affair
James Crabtree interviews Bilahari Kausikan
Few Asian geopolitical observers are as controversial or as widely quoted as Bilahari Kausikan. After nearly four decades as a diplomat, Bilahari—as he is always known—now acts as roving Singaporean intellectual, willing to speak truths from which others in Southeast Asia often shy away.
The west is in the grip of a decoupling delusion
Global businesses now talk about “friend-shoring”, meaning moving production towards geopolitical partners such as India, Mexico or Poland. Alternatively, they might set up facilities in south-east Asia, where most nations are geopolitically neutral between Beijing and Washington.
What kind of great power will India become?
India’s response to the war in Ukraine did not pan out the way many in the west might have hoped. As Russia’s tanks poured across the border in February, US officials pushed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to condemn Moscow. New Delhi had different ideas.