- The draft Syria resolution being considered by the US Congress.
- Meanwhile, al Qaida-linked rebels have attacked a Christian village in Syria.
- On internet censorship, China is setting an example being followed in Southeast Asia.
- British MP Rory Stewart on the best argument for Syria intervention: 'Why should there be a difference between a chemical weapon and anything else?...there are many particularly horrifying weapons– such as cluster bombs – which remain in use. But that is an argument for widening the circle of what is prohibited, not narrowing it.'
- Signs of a more diverse and cash-based economy in North Korea.
- The Lowy Institute's Rodger Shanahan in the Journal of Shi'a Islamic Studies on the influence of Lebanon's Shi'a clerical families.
- How much damage is protectionism doing to the Indonesian economy?
- The Lowy Institute's new Distinguished International Fellow Kurt Campbell writes in the FT:
It is not too much of an exaggeration to suggest that, despite some personal foibles, Mr Rudd represents in many respects a reincarnation of Winston Churchill in the region. More than any other Asian leader, in the past decade he has provided a clear and resonant strategic framework for integrating and engaging (and, when necessary, confronting) a rising China...Not since Singaporean prime minister Lee Kuan Yew during the Vietnam war has a leader had a bigger behind-the-scenes impact on American thinking on Asia than Mr Rudd.