A conversation with Margaret Bywater.

A conversation with the veteran British journalist and filmmaker Tom Fawthrop.British journalist and filmmaker Tom Fawthrop has delivered his latest documentary on the plight of the Mekong River amid ongoing dam construction, climate change, and that appears to have ended with this year’s heavy rains. "A River Screams for Mercy: Murdering the Mekong" follows efforts by local activists demanding a moratorium on dam construction, but their calls too often fall on deaf ears among authorities...

Bradley Murg discusses the recent ASEAN, G-20, and APEC conclaves.

A conversation with journalist and Myanmar activist Scott Johnson.Scott Johnson is an Australia-based lawyer, journalist, and human rights advocate with more than 20 years of experience focusing on indigenous groups and geopolitical issues in Southeast Asia, in particular Myanmar, which he still calls Burma. His work began in the 1990s with human rights campaigns for The Montagnard Foundation, which included lobbying in the United Nations, Geneva, Washington, D.C. and Brussels. He also...

A conversation with Kupa Lopes, Timor-Leste's ambassador to Cambodia.

A conversation with economist Ganeshan Wignaraja.COLOMBO — Sri Lanka's Acting President Ranil Wickremesinghe has declared yet another State of Emergency ahead of the next sitting of Parliament, whern politicians have promised an All Party Government (APG) will be formed and a new president elected this week. The next task will be to negotiate an IMF bailout, this country’s 17th since independence  in 1948, and a restructuring of debts totaling $51 billion while reining in hyperinflation,...

A conversation with David Richards about life under the junta.

A conversation with director Karl Malakunas.Palawan island in the Philippines has emerged as a battlefield for a tiny network of environmental crusaders and vigilantes who are trying to protect its spectacular natural resources, powder-white beaches, and lush forests, which have made it one of Asia’s hot new tourist destinations. They are also the subject of a new feature-length documentary "Delikado" from director Karl Malakunas who pressed ahead with its production after one of the...

A conversation with author Charlotte McDonald-Gibson.Security laws imposed around the world to curb the spread of COVID-19 enabled the authorities to crackdown on militancy, which resulted in a brief respite from they type of terrorist attacks that had become all too familiar during the first two decades of this century. But as author Charlotte McDonald-Gibson notes, the pandemic could lend itself to increased isolation and the same factors that have enabled groups like the Islamic State...

A conversation with veteran academic Carl Thayer.

A conversation with journalist Abby Seiff about the challenges facing Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake.

A conversation with retired U.S. Naval Captain Carl Schuster.

A conversation with Dave Welsh from the Solidarity Center.Independent trade unions in Thailand and Myanmar are currently doing it hard, with authoritarian regimes in both countries taking a dim view of labor activism and using the courts to silence complaints over plant closures and even disputes over railway safety. the State Railway Union of Thailand and13 unionists, including Sawit Kaevwan, head of the overall Thai Trade Union Movement, and court orders major garment brands like...

A conversation with Brian Eyler of the Stimson Center.The lower Mekong River is entering its fourth year of drought with poor rainfall, climate change, and hydropower dams producing the worst conditions along Southeast Asia’s largest waterway in more than 60 years, threatening the livelihoods of up to 70 million people. As a result, the Mekong River Commission (MRC) is urging the six Mekong countries to urgently address “regional low flows, water fluctuations, and drought.” In its latest...

A conversation about the future of reds and whites.Darren Gall left Australia more than two decades ago and has since established himself as a wine producer, taster, importer, and writer and played an integral part in promoting an industry which is now worth billions of dollars a year. That includes his stake in vineyards and wine-making facilities in Myanmar where businesses have been punished by the pandemic and last year’s military coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San...

A conversation with author Thierry de Roland Peel.Thierry de Roland Peel will shortly release his first book "Ashes from Annam," which tells the story of how his mother and her family survived the incredible upheavals in Saigon at the end of World War II when the occupying Japanese realized they had lost. Central to the story is the family dog, Mephisto, a lively Groenendael, who delivered secret messages to the outside world as the frontlines surrounding their home changed constantly with...

A conversation with author Chris Woolf.

Bradley Murg discusses Chinese debt, AUKUS, and grandiose ambitions.A paradigm shift has occurred in geopolitics, particularly across the Indo-Pacific with the re-emergence of the Quad security partnership and the AUKUS deal forged between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This is a major issue for Southeast Asia where politics is already complicated by a dramatic rise in Chinese debt, which is threatening the region's economy and has brought the glory days of its Belt...

A conversation with Keith Loveard about inequity and his latest book.

A conversation about why the Quad mattersGuy Taylor is the National Security Team Leader at The Washington Times, overseeing the paper's State Department, Pentagon, and intelligence coverage. He has also reported from dozens of countries and seen his work honored by several journalism awards. Prior to joining The Times in 2011, Taylor was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the Fund For Investigative Journalism and he served as an editor at World Politics Review Taylor...

A conversation about the last 20 years in Afghanistan.

A conversation with Helen Jarvis, a genocide scholar and tribunal stalwart.

A conversation about jailed colleagues in Myanmar, the COVID-19 pandemic, and teaching journalism.Australian journalist Liam Cochrane is a former foreign correspondent for the ABC, who has traveled the Asia-Pacific region filing for television, radio, and digital platforms. As a specialist VJ – a solo video journalist – he has held ABC postings in Thailand and covered Myanmar extensively. Cochrane has also been posted Papua New Guinea and he freelanced from Nepal, as well as serving as...

A conversation with veteran foreign correspondent Lindsay Murdoch.Australian correspondent Lindsay Murdoch has been awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) on this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to journalism after spending most of his five decades in journalism covering upheavals across Southeast Asia. Murdoch began his career working on the Warragul Guardian in southeast Australia in 1968 and joined The Age in Melbourne in 1977 as a police reporter. Starting from the...

A conversation with a veteran war reporter.