Sydney University decides to risk the disapproval of the Chinese government and host a lecture by the Dalai Lama.

Israel, Iran and North Korea. Different nuclear programs, very different reactions.

Kim Jong-un is engaging in the same game as his father did, upping the rhetorical ante to win concessions from the west. It doesn’t mean he’s going to start a war.

What’s going on in the East China Sea? Are China and Japan really on the brink of war? And whose side is Malcolm Fraser on?

Just weeks after its chairman visited North Korea, Google has unveiled detailed new mapping of the Stalinist nation. It may not come from official sources, but it’s still a fascinating resource.

It was again a mixed year for elections, where the forces of change and the forces of stability both had their victories. Here’s my top 10 for 2012.

No surprises in South Korea: Wednesday’s presidential election resulted in a narrow but expected victory for the centre-right candidate, Park Geun-hye, who will become the country’s first female president. She defeated the centre-left’s Moon Jae-in with 51.6% of the vote to 48.0% (official figures here). Voting in South Korea (like most presidential elections – the [...]

One of the ideas behind this blog is that election results can’t always be taken at face value: the headlines don’t necessarily reflect what actually happened, and even what actually happened might not reflect what people voted for. Last Sunday’s election in Japan provides a rather nice illustration. The headlines are quite unequivocal: the opposition [...]