Government attacks on the judiciary and political dissent have accelerated Sri Lanka’s authoritarian turn and threaten long-term stability and peace. The government’s politically motivated impeachment of the chief justice reveals both its intolerance of dissent and the weakness of the political opposition. By incapacitating the last institutional check on the executive, the government has crossed...

The next round of talks between the Philippines' largest Muslim insurgent group and the government is a crucial step towards implementing a sweeping peace agreement signed in October. This report from the International Crisis Group, examines how the pact signed by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the government of President Benigno Aquino III...

This report argues that the Sri Lankan government’s refusal to negotiate seriously with Tamil political leaders is heightening ethnic tensions and damaging prospects for sustainable peace. The administration, led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party of Mahinda Rajapaksa, has refused to honour agreements with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), broken promises to world leaders and...

Afghanistan is hurtling toward a devastating political crisis as the government prepares to take full control of security in 2014, argues this report. Plagued by factionalism and corruption, Afghanistan is far from ready to assume responsibility for security when U.S. and NATO forces withdraw in 2014. That makes the political challenge of organising a credible...

Politics in the Sulu archipelago could be an unforeseen stumbling block for a negotiated peace with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in the southern Philippines. This report examines how clan politics in the island provinces of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi off the coast of Mindanao could complicate the government’s efforts to sign a peace agreement...