Tomorrow will mark the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima by the US. That bombing was followed three days later by an atomic bomb dropped on the city of Nagasaki. Americans believe that these explosions ended the war begun by Japan on 7 December 1941. That conclusion is far from certain as some analysts believe that it was the threat of Soviet intervention that led to the Japanese surrender (see Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Racing the Enemy: Stalin, Truman, and the Surrender of Japan, Belknap Press, 2006). At the time, the bombings were considered just another phase of a bloody war that completely ignored the prohibitions against killing civilians. We now know that the atomic bombs introduced a completely different level of horror to war.
The analysis of the changing balance of power in Asia has mostly focused on the US-China naval competition. However, that framework ignores the growing cooperation between India, Japan, and Australia–three countries which, for different reasons, have kept a relatively low naval profile. That profile is rapidly changing, and these three rising powers changes the power configurations quite dramatically. The difficulty comes in trying to assess how cooperative these countries will be with each other.
If one is a supporter of liberal thought, here are some things to worry about:
- Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that secret military courts were legal and could pass death sentences on civilians.
- A South Sudanese opposition leader was prevented from leaving the country to attend a peace conference in Ethiopia.
- Hindu activists in Nepal protested the word “secular” in the country’s draft constitution.
- Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak was questioned about a $671 million donation that was deposited into his private bank account.
- The Indonesian government has recommended legislation to make insulting the President illegal.
- Turkish journalists are threatened with jail for publishing a photograph of a terrorist attack.
Freedom is taking a real hit in the world.
World Politics News 
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