END OF THE ROAD FOR MALAYSIA – NORTH KOREA RELATIONSHIP
No man is an island. So they say, but there is a hermit in East Asia that continues to build proverbial Island around itself. That island is none other than Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, better known as North Korea. And instead of making overtures to return to the international scene, the hermit nation had […]
BRITAIN’S INTEGRATED REVIEW AND THE CHINA QUESTION
“China, China, China.” That was the message Patrick Shanahan delivered to his staff on the first day of his role as acting United States defence secretary in early 2019 under the Donald Trump regime. Over two years on, little have changed as the People’s Republic remains a top priority for Joseph Biden’s foreign policy team. […]
MALAYSIA’S DEFENCE POSTURE AND ITS REGIONAL POSITION
Background Malaysia is a country separated into two geographical locations namely the Malay Peninsular and North Borneo. It has a land area of 328,550 km2 and is surrounded by three important ocean bodies namely, the Straits of Malacca, the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. It straddled a very strategic location between South East […]
RETHINKING OF MALAYSIAN PRESENCE IN IMT MINDANAO
Background The deployment of the Malaysian contingent to the International Monitoring Team (IMT) Mindanao, The Philippines this year marks the 15th year participation of Malaysia direct involvement in the peace process between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The supranational team comprises of 5 nations – Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, […]
THE POWER OF TRACK II DIPLOMACY: MALAYSIAN PERSPECTIVES
Introduction Perhaps the less travelled road in diplomacy is the Track II Diplomatic way of advancing a nation’s agenda in the post-modernist era of international relations (IR). Ever since the Westphalian system was introduced in 1641 and up to the end of World War II (WWII), the approach in carrying out the international relation of […]