Torontohearings

Tokyo Courts the Tiger: Why Japan Needs India
Recently, Japan has been increasingly emphasizing its ties with India, efforts which have been highlighted by newly elected Indian Prime Minister Modi’s recent trip to Japan. This was Modi’s first major foreign visit since assuming office, and he was lauded for his efforts by Cabinet upon his return. This renewed engagement with India is in…
Asymmetry Through the Ages: The Myth of Irregular Warfare as a Modern Phenomenon
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War saw the United States as the unchallenged hegemon. America in all its military superiority and glittering technological panoply now stood with no enemy in sight. During the 1990s and into the new millennium the political community witnessed the re-emergence of asymmetrical conflicts,…
Reconciliation Over Retribution: The East Timor Truth and Reconciliation Commission
The small region now known as East Timor elicited a large international reaction following the outbreak of violence related to the nascent country’s independence bid. The United Nations established a transitional government and instituted a truth and reconciliation commission in order to investigate the violence as well as the legacy of several decades of Indonesian…
Beijing’s Response to Uighur Violence and Identity Issues
While the West and the world’s media attention has been focused on the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria, China has been gripped by a wave of violence perpetuated by homegrown Muslim terrorists. Last week fifty people were killed (including forty suspected assailants) and more injured as multiple explosions shook Luntai County, Xinjiang. In…
Himalayan Hurdles: India and China’s Territorial Disputes on the Roof of the World
If you wish to read this post’s long-form essay parent article, click here China has garnered increasing international attention as it continues along the road to superpower status. Commentators in the West have, especially since the turn of the millennium, posited as to Beijing’s ulterior motives and ambitions at regional hegemony in Asia. Many in…
Crimes Against Humanity: Local Impact and International Concerns
Crimes against humanity, having entered the everyday vocabulary of modern society, are a grim legacy of the 20th century. The convergence of state power and sovereignty with technology led to some of the worst atrocities in our history. In response to these acts there developed a new branch of international law which seeks to speak…
The Plight of Myanmar’s Rohingya People
In recent years, Myanmar has begun to open up and embark on a laudable path towards democracy. Despite this trajectory, however, another disturbing narrative exists which is increasingly coming to the world’s attention. The plight of the Muslim minority Rohingya people is one of systematic repression teetering on genocide. In 1982 a law was passed…
The Last Lama? The Dalai Lama on China and Rejecting a Successor
Following their victory over the Kuomintang Nationalists in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sought to re-establish direct control over the traditional periphery of Qing China. Areas such as Tibet and Xinjiang had, following the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, drifted out of Beijing’s orbit, achieving de facto independence. In 1950 the People’s…
Himalayan Hurdles: The 1962 War and Indo-Chinese Territorial Disputes
The emergence of the Indian Republic in 1947 and the People’s Republic of China in 1949 drastically altered the political landscape of Asia. These two ancient civilizations, now encapsulated in nascent states in the mid 20th century soon found themselves hamstrung by history. The legacy of British colonial rule, the fall of the Qing dynasty…