Indira Ranamagar is Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of Nepal since January 2023. She started her career as a primary science and maths teacher in village schools in the southeast of Nepal, and became a social worker in prisons in 1990. For well over 30 years now, she has been a prolific human rights and social worker. In 2000, she founded the NGO Prisoner’s Assistance Nepal, which looks after prisoners' welfare and works to give children whose parents are imprisoned an...

Nalin Mehta is a political scientist and journalist in Delhi, India, and author of The New BJP, a work you can only call THE  book on the BJP, the largest political party in the world. Under the leadership of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP has solidified its position as the uncontested center of power in the world's most populous country. As India heads to the polls over a 6-week period beginning April 19, we talk with Nalin about how the BJP built and expanded its power base,...

There is little to dispute about Asia's rise as a key feature of our time. Already the world's most populous region, Asian countries have steadily gained in economic and political influence on the world stage in recent decades. While in the past this development has been driven heavily by China, the next few years will see countries like India, Indonesia, and Vietnam expand their international clout. As the balance of power shifts east, will the world order inevitably change? Asia is far from...

Johan Nylander is an award-winning author and freelance China and Asia correspondent. His work is published by CNN, Forbes, Sweden’s leading business daily Dagens Industri, and many other international media outlets. His most recent book is The Wolf Economy Awakens – Mongolia’s Fight for Democracy, and a Green and Digital Future (Hong Kong University Press, 2023). It's full of original reporting and great conversations with Mongolians, from angry elderly people in the street and the lead...

STATE OF ASIA, the podcast from Asia Society Switzerland, is back with engaging conversations with leading minds on the issues that shape Asia and affect us all. The new season premieres Tuesday, March 26, with a conversation with Hong Kong-based journalist and author Johan Nylander, whose latest book is a deep dive on one of Asia's largest but, for now, most unknown nations: Mongolia. New episodes follow every other Tuesday. Plus: look out for special episodes bringing you insights from...

A Closer Look is our popular series taking quick but deep dives into countries and issues that matter, with webcasts, podcasts, and in-person events. This episode is part of A Closer Look: Indonesia After Jokowi, looking at what's next for the Southeast Asian giant now that the hugely popular President Joko Widodo is preparing to hand over to former general Prabowo Subianto, the winner of the February 14 elections. Talking about Jokowi's legacy from a ground-level perspective are Nimas Mega...

For decades, Taiwan has existed in a fragile balance, neither truly independent nor unified with mainland China. While this status quo has proven surprisingly enduring, China's continued economic and military rise and its government’s increasing nationalistic rhetoric have raised fears of a conflict around the island – accidental or intentional. What's the best approach to prevent further or more intense aggressive actions from China against Taiwan? Build up strong military deterrence, or go...

Two terrific knowers of China talk about the prospects for the struggling Chinese economy and the question that's on the mind of foreign companies in the country: stay, or go? Listen to Keyu Jin, well-connected professor at the London School of Economics and author of 2023's The New China Playbook; and Jörg Wuttke, President Emeritus of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. They spoke on stage at the STATE OF ASIA conference, Asia Society Switzerland's flagship event, held on...

On November 21, 2023, Singaporean diplomatic legend Bilahari Kausikan delivered Asia Society Switzerland's second annual State of Asia Address in front of a full house in the prestigious Aula of the University of Zurich. He set himself up to answer the question: Will this – can this – be the ‘Asian century’, in a highly original speech filled with fundamental insights in the big issues facing Asia and the world. Bilahari is former Ambassador and Permanent Secretary of Singapore. He has spent...

Fuchsia Dunlop is a master cook, celebrated food writer, and accredited chef of Chinese cuisines. She was the first Westerner to train as a chef at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine and has spent much of the last two decades exploring China and its food. She is the author of several award-winning books, and a contributor to the Financial Times, the New Yorker, and other publications Her latest book is Invitation to a Banquet – The Story of Chinese Food, a fascinating 400-page read on...

India is having an eventful year. It led the G20, worked to welcome more members into the BRICS, and it landed on the moon. Despite persisting domestic issues, from economic inequality to shrinking civil liberties, India is thriving in its foreign relations – which may help Prime Minister Modi, as he gears up for elections due next spring.  India has an ambitious goal: to become the world's third largest economy and to emerge as a geopolitical superpower. Will it be able to deliver on that...

C. Raja Mohan is a Senior Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute in Delhi, India who has published widely on India’s foreign and security policies, Asian geopolitics, and the global governance of advanced technologies. Last November, he delivered our annual State of Asia Address, which he kicked off by saying he wouldn't have minded talking about Europe, as he was 'deeply fascinated and troubled' by what he saw happening there. So, for this episode, we dialed up Raja in Delhi to ask him...

Simona Grano is an associate professor at the University of Zurich and a Senior Fellow at Asia Society's Center for China Analysis, where she focuses on Taiwan and its upcoming presidential election. In this episode she gives us a lay of the land ahead of Taiwan's January 2024 presidential election. Instead of the usual 2, this time 4 candidates are on the ballot. How will this split the vote? And how will China react if, for the first time ever, the pro-independence DPP manages to  win the...

Things are heating up in Solomon Islands. The South Pacific island nation of 700,000 people is gearing up to host its greatest event ever: the 2023 Pacific Games. China has built and financed most of the venues for the games, while Australia paid for dormitories for the 5,000 athletes from 24 countries, and Japan is improving the roads. All this, as the U.S.  reopened its embassy after 30 years, to counter growing Chinese influence in the region. In this bonus episode, hear from two Solomon...

Alexander Gabuev is the Director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, based in Berlin. In this episode, he talks about having to leave Moscow and how he now gauges what's happening in Russia from abroad. He explains how Russia is out of options and increasingly seems to become a vassal state of China, and he talks about how alienation between China and Russia on one side, and the West on the other, is here to stay – and what that means. Alexander  will speak at the STATE OF ASIA...

Bilahari Kausikan is an iconic veteran of diplomacy, with a career of 37 years under his belt at Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He served as Ambassador to Russia, to the UN in New York, and as the Ministry's Permanent Secretary. In this episode, he explains why he's not unhopeful about the state of the world, the fundamental dilemma facing China, and how, as a small country, you can still have agency on the global stage. Bilahari will deliver the annual STATE OF ASIA Address in...

State of Asia, the podcast from Asia Society Switzerland, is back with a new season of engaging conversations with leading minds on the issues that shape Asia and affect us all. The season premieres Tuesday, Sep 19, with a conversation with Bilahari Kausikan, former Ambassador and Permanent Secretary at Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. New episodes follow every other Tuesday. Bilahari, as well as other guests featured this season, will be in Zurich, Switzerland, to speak at our...

Asia Inside Out, a podcast from our friends at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), just relaunched. The first episode, which we're sharing here, features Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan, in conversation with Rorry Daniels, Managing Director at ASPI. Subscribe to Asia Inside Out in your favourite podcast app, or listen here. Get in the right starting position to fill the second half of the year with great Asia content and events. Register now to attend our annual flagship STATE...

Evan Feigenbaum, Vice President at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, has a career spanning the highest levels of government, academia, think tanks, and the private sector, covering Central, South, and East Asia. It makes him uniquely qualified to discuss the State of Asia writ large on this final episode of the season. He talks about how China and the US act as 'security narcissists', creating a danger for the whole region, and how other Asian countries are nervously trying to...

In this bonus episode of STATE OF ASIA, listen to four experts debate whether Europe should side with the U.S. on China, or carve out its own path in the relationship with Beijing. They participated in an Oxford Debate in front of a live audience in Zurich on June 26, 2023, organised by Asia Society Switzerland. Presenting clear-cut, time-constrained, well-thought-out arguments are: Noah Barkin, Senior Advisor in Rhodium Group's China practice, based in Berlin, Germany.Philippe Le Corre,...

Amrita Narlikar is President of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies and Professor of International Relations at the University of Hamburg. She is currently also serving as a co-chair of the T20's Task Force 3, which forms a part of the G20 process under India's Presidency. In this episode, she talks about why the West should engage and cooperate with India a lot more than it's doing now, about the new character of globalised trade, and the unique perspective India brings to its...

Brian Hioe 丘琦欣 is a Taipei-based editor and writer. He is one of the founding editors of New Bloom Magazine, an online magazine covering activism and youth politics in Taiwan and Asia Pacific. He is a non-resident fellow at the University of Nottingham’s Taiwan Studies Programme, as well as a freelance journalist and translator. He also writes regularly for The Diplomat on Taiwan. He tweets on all things Taiwan, sometimes by the minute,  @brianhioe. In this episode, Brian talks about how...

Huong Le Thu is a non-resident fellow with the Southeast Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She's a prolific writer and influential voice on Southeast Asia and its role in the region. In this episode, she talks about Southeast Asia's positioning in the great power competition between China and the U.S., and what opportunities can arise from it for both the region as a whole and for countries like Vietnam individually. The essay  'How to Survive a Great-Power...

In this bonus episode of STATE OF ASIA, listen to four experts debate whether Japan's recently announced military build-up is a threat to regional stability, in an Oxford Debate organised on May 9, 2023, by Asia Society Switzerland. Presenting clear-cut, time-constrained arguments are: John Delury, professor of Chinese Studies at Yonsei University in SeoulLionel Fetton, assistant professor of International Relations at Webster University in GenevaYuka Koshino, research fellow for Security...