Op-Ed: Securing the maritime commons India’s peninsular geography provides a long coastline extending toward the Persian Gulf in West Asia and Southeast Asia in the east. This geography provided an impetus to explore the vast waters surrounding the Indian Peninsula because it offered easy access to the maritime domain. THE INDIAN PENINSULA India’s maritime tradition is among the world’s oldest, with unparalleled continuity since the Neolithic Age . Golbai Sasan, a Neolithic s August 12, 2026

Mecca defense pact buries American security guarantee Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Pakistan signed a treaty last week promising to defend each other if any one of them is attacked. That is the promise the United States has been making to these countries for decades. The Makkah Joint Defence Agreement was signed on Aug. 7 at Al-Safa Palace in Mecca by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The joint statement says an attack on one "shall be reg August 10, 2026

Editorial: Korea's football association scandal crosses the line The controversy surrounding the Korea Football Association has moved from damaging to deeply troubling. After disputes over the selection of the national team coach and the unprecedented police raid on the association, allegations have now emerged that foreign referees and match officials were provided sexual services around international matches in South Korea. According to reports citing a 2016 audit by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, around 10 foreign referee August 10, 2026

Op-ed: Evening with Space Poetry Reading Society Editor's Note: The following opinion article is contributed by Choe Chong-dae, a longstanding member of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea and an enthusiast of international cultural and historical affairs. My longstanding interest in literature led me to attend the monthly gathering of the Space Poetry Reading Society on July 2, 2026, at the gracious invitation of Choi Chong-ko, Emeritus Professor of Law at Seoul National University. During the event, I had the privilege of i August 7, 2026

ARMY answers Grammys as BTS lets music speak Two sold-out nights at MetLife Stadium passed without a word from the stage about the group's Grammy withdrawal. The jumbotron told a different story. For two and a half hours at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Saturday night, the biggest band in the world played 23 songs and said nothing at all about the Grammy Awards. This was three days after the group had announced it would not submit its music to the 69th ceremony. The omission was noticeable enough August 4, 2026

Editorial: South Korea is not the AI bust - it's the first stress test Everyone seems to have one thing to say about South Korea's stock market these days. Bloomberg Opinion warns that the country is becoming "uninvestable." Asia Times sees a familiar story in which "financial leverage plus unsophisticated new buyers plus a strong fundamental story" produced a spectacular bubble and crash. The Economist portrays South Korea as "a great experiment in mixing the extremes of state capitalism and market speculation," August 4, 2026

Wild Wild Seoul: How casino bet nearly broke the Chip Republic Summer is usually a sleepy season for stocks. Not this year. In Seoul, July was sheer chaos. The KOSPI plunged 22.19 percent from June's close, wiping out nearly a quarter of the roughly 100 percent rally it had built in the first half. The KOSDAQ dropped 21.44 percent, accounting for almost its entire 22.23 percent decline for the year after barely moving through June. By mid-month, sidecars and circuit breakers had become almost routine. The KOSPI ended 2025 at August 1, 2026

What Grammys lost when BTS walked away For five years, BTS wanted a Grammy, and the wanting was never hidden. The group submitted its music every cycle. Its members flew to Las Vegas and delivered performances that outclassed the ceremony hosting them, went home with nothing, and returned the next year to try again. On the red carpet in 2022, RM told American cable TV entertainment news operation E! News that the previous two years had been exhausting and devastating, and that a Grammy would make it all pay off. He sai July 30, 2026

Editorial: The chip party isn't over. Seoul's party is. Only weeks ago, Seoul looked unstoppable. The KOSPI had nearly doubled this year, turning into one of the world's hottest equity markets. AI had become less an investment theme than a national obsession. Retail investors borrowed aggressively to buy leveraged ETFs tied to SK hynix, Samsung Electronics and the index itself. Every dip was bought. Every earnings beat was assumed. Every valuation looked justified because artificial intelligence was rewriting the rules. T July 29, 2026

Op-ed: Closing of last safe trade route Editor's Note: The following opinion article is contributed by Dr. Imran Khalid, a Karachi-based geostrategic analyst and senior fellow at Foreign Policy In Focus - USA. The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the contributor and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position, analysis or views of AJP, its editors or its parent organization. AJP publishes contributed opinion pieces from governments, diplomatic missions, experts and other exter July 29, 2026