Asia’s need for better infrastructure and more development is too important to be held to ransom by outdated big power politics and petty posturing.

Countries supposedly fighting Da’ish (Islamic State) militants can begin to succeed only if they can acknowledge their weaknesses and errors, which still seems unlikely.

There is no new Cold War, at least not yet, unless the West is determined to pursue it over all other needs.

EVEN before Said and Cherif Kouachi had claimed allegiance to “al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula” (AQAP) earlier this month in Paris, the network of transnational terrorism had been hazy enough.

There are usually more than two sides to an argument, despite the temptation to think there are just two bitterly opposed and incompatible ones.

Major countries make major strategic errors, often to the advantage of other major powers, smaller nations in between or all of the above.

However hard Israel may try to block equal rights for Palestine in peace talks, even its US ally cannot stop an international quest for justice.

The success story of regional integration in Latin America today is seldom heard elsewhere in the world, even as people there experience it daily.

Countries still steeped in criticising Asean and its ‘ways’ could do worse than look in the mirror and be honest with themselves at least.

Where undeclared interests reign, such as in global strategic concerns, the need to get a firmer grip on reality grows.