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Terrorism is defined as the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, in particular against civilians, for political causes. Since the 9/11 attacks in New York at the turn of the millennium, terrorism has risen to notoriety as one of the global communities’ greatest humanitarian and institutional threats. Having established itself as a perennial threat to government institutions and national systems, terror organizations have succeeded in shaking the sociocultural and multilateral landscapes that dictate the current world order …read more
By Xavier Lim
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Singapore has spent sixty years insisting it is not a Chinese city. That project was always fragile. The current wave — corporate, capital, and commercial — is its most serious test yet. Walk through any suburban mall and the evidence is sensory and immediate: Mixue, Luckin, Haidilao, malatang stalls, BYD vehicles in the car park. Further up the value chain, Chinese tech firms are reincorporating in Raffles Place to scrub their geopolitical risk, and wealthy mainlanders are buying Good Class Bungalows in cash. Singapore benefits from …read more
By Dhruv Manoj
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China’s rapid rise and industrialization within the last few decades showcases the reversion of the world order towards a historical norm, taking into context the geopolitical dominance displayed by the various Chinese civilizations since millennia. It was only in the past two centuries did China undergo reforms, revolutions and transformations on a scale almost unheard of due to a combination of the intensity and population size encompassed in the major historical events that have led to China’s current place on the …read more
By Xavier Lim
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Sometime in the latter half of the twentieth century, something happened that had never happened before in the long arc of human history. Across the wealthiest, most educated, most technologically advanced societies on earth, people began – collectively, voluntarily, and with apparent finality – to stop replacing themselves. This was not the result of plague, famine, or war. It was not imposed by governments or forced by circumstance. It emerged, quietly and persistently, from the choices of hundreds of …read more
By Dhruv Manoj
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Capitalism, in some form or another, has been regarded as the de facto option for the default state of any nation’s economy since the end of the cold war, which saw the dissolution of the only major command economy that disappeared with the fall of the USSR. In the modern age, any nation that wishes to reap the unequivocal benefits of globalization enabled by the exchange of markets across sovereign states inevitably embraces some form of the capitalist economy. Given the deep permeation of late-stage capitalist …read more
By Xavier Lim
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The recent breakout of yet another border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia in May 2025 highlighted the inherited geopolitical issues from decades of colonial interference of modern day post-colonial states, alongside the impacts of nationalist sentiments fueled by domestic policies that resulted in some of the fiercest fighting in Southeast Asia since the Vietnam War. This essay will cover the background, causes and key events in the border conflict that escalated into battles that were only resolved after millions of civilians …read more
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