Maximillian Mørch


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Himal Southasian •

Bland lessons and careful lies from Bhutan’s prime minister

Tobgay has served as the prime minister of Bhutan since January 2024, returning to the role after a previous term from 2013 to 2018. He is the co-founder and leader of the People’s Democratic Party, Bhutan’s first-ever officially registered political party. His book was written “for leaders from all backgrounds and at all levels who want to change for the better and are looking for a compassionate philosophy to bring the right people together in consensus rather than conflict.” Tobgay believes t...
Fair Observer •

Can India and Nepal Find a Path to Peaceful Coexistence?

When Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla arrived in Kathmandu in late November, he did something that would have seemed impossible just a few months earlier. After landing at Tribhuvan International Airport, instead of continuing to inflame rhetoric over the bitter territorial dispute that had engulfed the two neighbors, he spoke in Nepali about cooperation and connectivity between the two nations. His visit, and the manner of his address, was in sharp contrast to the acidic barbs th
The Kathmandu Post •

Closing the border isn’t an option

Due to hostile environments in India and Bangladesh, Rohingyas fleeing genocide in Myanmar may look to Nepal for refugee, and in order to protect Nepal’s sovereignty and national security, they should be barred from entry into Nepal, argued Prasanna Mahat in her article entitled The Rohingya in Nepal published on January 1 in this newspaper. While the situation is undoubtedly complex, the idea that Nepal should deny entry to new arrivals is a problematic argument for several reasons. First of
The Diplomat •

Citizenship, Identity and Nepal’s Contested 2015 Constitution

Four years ago, celebrations erupted across the Nepali capital after President Ram Baran Yadav stood in front of the Constituent Assembly and promulgated a new constitution. The constitution formally declared Nepal a federal democratic republic and was the product of the second Constituent Assembly which had been in session since 2013. The final proceedings of the constitution were fast tracked in an ephemeral moment of political unity as the country still reeled from the devastating April earth
The Record •

Api Nampa Conservation Area has been a colossal failure

Nepal suffers from an extraordinarily wide variety of environmental threats. One method of alleviating such threats has been the establishment of Conservation Areas. Yet despite this well-intentioned and relatively successful environmental policy, Api Nampa Conservation Area in Darchula district has not been successful at all. The Api Nampa Conservation Area (ANCA) is Nepal’s latest Conservation Area (CA) and was established in 2010 in an attempt to conserve the ecosystem of far western Nepal.
The Record •

Nepali Diaspora in Thailand struggles to get citizenship

Most of the Nepalis in Thailand are recent arrivals, coming to work, to study or simply to visit the beach. Yet there are some who have much longer ties to the region. These people of Nepali origin migrated to Burma long ago, but were then pushed out of Burma and have landed in Thailand. The Thai-Nepali Association states there are 80,000 Thais of Nepali descent living in Thailand and some have claimed that over 90 per cent of all Nepalese living in Thailand are refugees from Burma. Today they a
The Diplomat •

Land Seizures, Protests, and Arrests in Myanmar

Land confiscation is rife in Myanmar. Confiscation of land for plantations, Special Economic Zones, development projects or for use by the military or other armed groups has affected Myanmar for decades. Today, following the 2015 Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement and the easing of sanctions on the country, bringing an increase in foreign capital for development projects, the pace of land confiscation shows no signs of slowing down. The scale of the seizures is not accurately known but in 2016 the F
Huffington Post •

The British Empire Is Not Dead – It Lives On In Colonial-Era Legislation

The British Empire started to fall apart after the Second World War. Over the new few years, at the culmination of long, hard-fought independence struggles, countries all over the world gained independence and were free, more or less, to pursue their own goals and self-rule. However, an unhelpful inheritance of colonial legislation designed to repress, control, and curtail freedom of expression was bestowed upon these nations.
The Kathmandu Post •

Easy money

Prime Minister KP Oli’s five-day visit to Beijing in June 2018 resulted in fruitful developments such as the signing of a memorandum of understanding on several items, most notably a Lhasa-Kathmandu railway. India did not see this trip, which will bring significant developmental benefits to Nepal and geopolitical benefits to China, from a positive point of view. For some in New Delhi, such agreements threaten well-established mutual cooperation between India and Nepal. They do not see this devel
Global Is Asian •

Why is Nepal not respected as a sovereign state

The dynamics between Nepal and regional superpowers, China and India point to a much bigger issue that questions the sovereignty of small states. How China and India engages with Nepal, and how Nepal responds provides great insight into the dynamic relationship between two emerging powers. Researchers should always be on the lookout for ways that could shed light on the nature of relations between these big powers.
The Diplomat •

The Slow Burning Insurgency in Thailand’s Deep South

Thailand’s deep south is far different from the islands that put Thailand on the tourist map. Here, the muezzin is heard more frequently than music from bars. The insurgency which has been ongoing in earnest since 2004 has played out mostly in the three southernmost districts of the country — Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat — and occasionally the southern provinces of Songkhla. The insurgency’s roots in the deep south date back to Thailand’s annexation and conquest of the Malay Sultanate of Patani
East Asia Forum •

The quandary of repatriating refugees along the Thailand–Myanmar border

Ever since political and ethnic conflict erupted in Myanmar in 1948, hundreds of thousands of civilians have been forcibly displaced and left to flee to and settle along the border with Thailand. These refugees are predominantly from Myanmar’s ethnic minorities and as conflict between ethnic armed organisations (EAOs) and the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s military) continues, many are stuck between the two countries in limbo.
The Diplomat •

Nepal and the Rohingya Refugees

Images of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing all manner of atrocities in northern Rakhine state in western Myanmar have flooded television screens and newspapers over the last few months. Over 500,000 Rohingya are believed to have fled in order to escape persecution by the Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s military. Stories of rape, murder, and torture have now become commonplace. While the overwhelming majority of refugees are currently in Bangladesh, several hundred Rohingya have sought refuge in Nep

Forgotten Resources

If, the state of a nations libraries can tell us anything about a society, then Nepal is in trouble. Nepal’s libraries which have long suffered from a lack of attention and chronic under-funding suffered a devastating blow last April and has yet to bounce back. The earthquake caused huge destruction to the physical structure of libraries and now almost 2 years of neglect has damaged the interior and the truly important part of any library, the books themselves. The majority of Kathmandu’s libraries were
Inside Himalayas •

Trekking to the Rolwaling Valley and Tso Rolpa Lake

The first Western exploration of the Rolwaling Valley was undertaken by Eric Shipton and his team at the end of the 1951 British Mount Everest Reconnaissance Expedition. After extensive exploration of the Solukhumbu for potential routes to tackle an Everest summit attempt, the team decided on their return to cross over the Tashi Lapsek Pass and return to Kathmandu via the as-yet-unexplored Rolwaling Valley. It was here that Shipton took the iconic and original yeti footprint photographs, startin
Inside Himalayas •

Trek to Darchula and the Api Nampa Conservation Area

There I stood, on paths previously trod by the famed Limi salt traders, who ventured further north into Tibet, while staring a the riverbanks of the most western flank of Nepal, into what was once the territory of the Gurkha Kingdom. Alone in this remote district of Nepal, I stared into India from my vantage point inside the Api Nampa Conservation Area. Far off the beaten track of Nepal’s tourist industry lies the Far West region. Yet over the last few years, tourism has fast started to advance
Himal Southasian •

The silent epidemic

Going by World Health Organisation (WHO) data, Nepal ranks very high in suicide rates, with 15 people taking their lives every day, on average. The country ranks seventh in the world for suicide rates and also ranks third for suicide rates among women between the reproductive age of 15-49 years. With 24.9 suicides recorded per 100,000 people in 2012, the last year for which comprehensive WHO statistics are available, Nepal has the second-highest rate in Southasia, with only Sri Lanka having a hi
Medium •

On the frontiers of Nepal

Nepal’s tourism industry focuses on a few centrally located attractions, further afield there is far more on offer Nepal attracts close to two million tourists each year, predominately drawn to its natural beauty and trekking potential. Yet so many repeat almost identical journey to the same well-established destinations. A few snatched days in Kathmandu and Pokhara before heading for a ‘bucket list’ trek around Everest or Annapurna. Yet, outside this central tourist belt, there is far more on
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