Ben Bland
Director, Asia-Pacific @ChathamHouse. Ex @LowyInstitute in ๐ฆ๐บ & @FT in ๐ฎ๐ฉ ๐ป๐ณ ๐ญ๐ฐ ๐จ๐ณ. Author:๐Man of Contradictions & ๐Generation HK. @BrentfordFC fan
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As a former correspondent in Vietnam & a student of Vietnamese history, I've read many accounts of the US war in Vietnam. Elizabeth Becker's new book on three women who helped chan...
When Malaysia's foreign minister called China's Wang Yi "big brother", it was seen as a gaffe back home. The deference shown to Beijing is partly a consequence of China's remarkabl...
An occasional thread of gems from The Honourable Schholboy, which Iโm reading for the first time: โTraditionally Ministers like nothing that cannot be written on a postcard. Prefer...
Why did Myanmar coup surprise many foreign analysts & diplomats, even though the generals telegraphed their intentions? Partly it's because predictions are hard, esp about the futu...
Indonesia performs poorly in the new Covid performance index produced by colleagues @AlyssaLeng and @HerveLemahieu. It comes in 85th out of 98 countries overall, the 2nd worst Asia...
The tale of the former regent of Karo, in North Sumatra, is a microcosm of topsy-turvy Indonesian politics. I interviewed Kena Ukur Surbakti, who died on Sunday, in 2014 during a m...
Thanks @alecash for asking me to pick @Five_Books that explain the Hong Kong protests. I/view roved from Kafka "smashing our illusions about the law into a thousand desolate pieces...
Many people have been asking where to buy my new book, Man of Contradictions. Here's the low-down. Distribution is tough in a global pandemic & first print run already sold out. Bu...
Thread on nation-building in SE Asia: easy to forget how young the concept (& reality) of nation-state is. Historians suggest first nation-state was 17th C England or 18th C France...
The @WorldBank's deep dives on Indonesia's economy, supported by @dfat funding, are invaluable for understanding Southeast Asia's biggest economy. The latest, on the long road to r...
As I suspected when HK natl security law came out, govt has implemented what amounts to a "fake news law" with power to order removal of content deemed harmful to national security...
On day two of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, the government issues a diktat that the popular protest slogan "Liberate Hong Kong, Revolution of Our Times" (ๅ ๅพฉ้ฆๆธฏ, ๆไปฃ้ฉ...