Natural disasters are having increasingly disruptive effects on social, environmental and economic systems. Wildfires, floods and similarly recurrent challenges have relatively clear policy interventions. By contrast, earthquakes are largely unpredictable, and there is no certain…
ASEAN’s 21st century call-to-action should be the pursuit of higher development standards and their normalisation across rural and urban areas – on issues like personal security, health, education, housing, and basic services. A robustly financed commitment…
With deepening links between technology and urban management, the means to innovate, scale-up, and implement “smart city” initiatives reside primarily with governments and corporations. The individual citizen is outside the conversation, as in the bygone…
Addressing the groundwater depletion problem – and in broader measure the growing crisis of water scarcity amidst rapid urbanisation – will require a multi-pronged approach that includes unequivocal political will, transparency, and support for technical…
Demographic changes in the 21st century have led to rapid urbanization around the world. Will growing cities coupled with global connectivity cause cities to play a leading role in handling issues of international importance? Or…
For Trump, business and politics are a universe of “winners” and “losers,” “weak” and “tough.” According to this market-based worldview, players have only themselves to blame for losing; competition rewards the tough and punishes the…
When costs to the environment and public health are found to outweigh the benefits of growth, will governments embrace smarter infrastructure or ignore environmental and social welfare? So far, economic expediency continues to drive the…
The global implications of domestic political dynamics can and should shape the practical proposals of the city-state movement. As the world’s “strong-man” authoritarians consolidate and strengthen their domestic power, the last hope for international economic,…
The economically vibrant cities of the Four Asian Tigers are a palimpsest of statist developmentalism. While the influence of industrial planning is deeply embedded in their institutions, globalisation, economic liberalisation and democratic reforms have combined…
Applying corporate governance in privatized SOEs should be considered not as a trade-off between – but as a catalyst for – economic growth and political stability. Even though Vietnam’s government appears capable of weathering civil…
