Reports

During its five decades of existence, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations has brought together a formerly divided region and laid the groundwork for the rise of a powerful regional – and possibly global – actor. However, the organization has experienced setbacks in recent years, most of them related to ...

Because of rising tensions in “water diplomacy” around the Mekong River, the region could become another geopolitical hotspot along the South China Sea. China’s clutch of hydropower dams control the water flow to downstream countries, leaving them vulnerable to drought and political blackmail. The lack of external major-power involvement from ...

Long known in Latin America as a backwater haven for criminal enterprises and eccentric dictators, Paraguay began to turn around over the past decade. Encouraged by growth from exports of soybeans and hydroelectricity, the country’s elite is taking cautious steps to strengthen state institutions and improve the rule of law. ...

Uruguay scores perfect tens on civil liberties and the electoral process in the World Bank’s rule of law index – matching Norway and New Zealand, and far outstripping its larger Latin American neighbors. The country’s internal stability is buttressed by an ambitious social welfare system. However, that presents Uruguay’s leaders ...

Prices for renewable energy are dropping in Latin America, making decarbonization – once a far-fetched notion – a very real possibility. The question is whether the political will is there. Many of the country's grids are in bad shape and unprepared to handle the change, while legislation, sometimes intended to ...

How fast the world moves toward cleaner energy hinges on several difficult-to-predict factors, including climate change policies, the glut in oil and gas markets and disruptive technologies. What seems sure is that renewable energy sources won’t overtake fossil fuels in the medium term and that natural gas will loom larger ...

Since the 1990s, the international community has been trying to keep climate change under control – with less than stellar results. Despite initiatives like the 1997 Kyoto Protocol or the 2015 Paris Agreement, global temperatures are still well on track to increase by 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels – ...

China has made big strides in greening its energy sector. But while some hope this means the country can become a new leader in the fight against global climate change, Beijing’s goals are different. The moves it is making now are aimed at putting China in an advantageous geopolitical position, ...

China is using the Mekong as a geopolitical tool. The river provides much needed irrigation water and hydropower potential to countries downstream, but Beijing can choke the flow with a network of 20 planned dams. If the downstream countries joined together, they would have a chance of preventing China from ...

China faces three big challenges in its energy strategy: reducing pollution, mitigating the negative effects of climate change and securing overland supply. The country has made huge investments to achieve its goals, but macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties could yet derail Beijing’s plans. In the end, China is likely to be ...