Authors

Authors on this site write under pen names. Each page describes what the author writes about and the position they write from.

Tao Miyazora
US–China relations · Japan's place in Asia · The Yellow Russia regime
Writes about the structural risks in US–China relations and the role of the "Yellow Russia" regime in Asia. Argues that decoupling from Beijing is unavoidable and that an Asia without a unifying empire is the safer future.
18 articles
Orthogonal Proxy
Asian order and imperial residue · Yellow Russia and internal colonialism · Timelines
A stateless Pan-Asian voice that takes imperial narratives apart with long-form essays and timelines. Writes from an anti-Bolshevik, anti-imperial position and argues for a multi-centred Asia.
15 articles
Andren Sakorv
Security services in the post-Soviet space · Repression compared · Evidence and accountability
Writes about the security machinery of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet space, and about how it learns from and works with Beijing. Interested in how evidence of repression is preserved and made public.
11 articles
Nikol Solzin
Dissidents and political prisoners · Memory of totalitarian rule · Exile communities
Writes about dissidents, prisons and the memory of totalitarian rule, from Russia to China. Stands with political prisoners across Eurasia and with the people their governments would rather forget.
10 articles
Naomi Ellridge
Silicon Valley and China · AI and surveillance · Chip export controls
Covers technology and AI: how Silicon Valley talks about freedom while bargaining for the Chinese market, and how AI fits into the surveillance state. Argues for an open internet.
8 articles
Fedor Vostin
Russian imperialism · The war in Ukraine · Eurasia's borderlands
Writes about the decline of the Russian empire and the war in Ukraine, and what both mean for Asia's borderlands. Supports Ukrainian sovereignty and opposes Russian and Chinese imperial projects.
7 articles
Brennan Ruskell
Imperial memory · Colonial history in Asia · Hong Kong
Writes about empire, colonial memory and contemporary Asia, with no patience for imperial nostalgia, British or otherwise. Especially critical of Beijing's use of anti-colonial rhetoric.
5 articles
Galen Orvelle
EU policy on China · Transatlantic relations · De-risking
Analyses European strategy towards China, the United States and Russia. Argues that Europe's strategic naivety about Beijing is a risk it can no longer afford.
4 articles
Giles Keranen
Chinese communities in North America · Influence operations · Canada's China policy
Writes about Chinese communities in North America, migration and policy towards Beijing. Looks for the line between countering PRC influence operations and avoiding prejudice against ordinary Chinese people.
4 articles
Christopher Hale
War memory · Alliances and deterrence · The Taiwan Strait
Writes about war memory, alliances and future conflict, including what America's recent wars mean for the Taiwan Strait. A realist about war who refuses to glorify it.
3 articles
Sorin Mukda
Dzungar history · Xinjiang · Steppe peoples and empire
Researches the continuity between the Qing destruction of the Dzungars and the CCP's rule in Xinjiang. Writes from the side of the steppe peoples and their right to their own history.
3 articles
Hana Arendell
Totalitarianism · Digital surveillance · Obedience and complicity
Writes political theory on totalitarianism, mass society and the digital age. Traces the line from Bolshevik rule to the Chinese model and asks how surveillance technology creates new forms of domination.
2 articles
Hiroto Senda
Culture and sport as politics · Go and the East Asian order · Media and national mood
Reads Go, baseball, the Olympics and media ritual as mirrors of the state. Skeptical of state myth-making, in China and in Japan alike.
2 articles
Lena Hulan
Manchuria · Diaspora identity · Migration across Northeast Asia
Writes about Manchuria as an erased place name, and about families who moved between Northeast China, Hokkaido and North America. Critical of both the CCP and the legacy of Japanese imperialism.
2 articles
Ondar Galzun
Northern Xinjiang's steppe · Land and ecology · Everyday control
Writes field notes about the steppe of northern Xinjiang: land, ecology, and what "stability maintenance" looks like in a village. Opposes settler colonialism on the steppe.
2 articles
Ardo Kestrel
Cyberwar · AI and authoritarianism · Information warfare
Covers technology and security: AI, cyberwar and information war, and how China and Russia divide the work between them. Critical of both Silicon Valley and Beijing.
1 articles
Bao Nguyen Khac
Vietnam · Internet censorship · The South China Sea
Writes about young Vietnamese, internet censorship and the South China Sea, and about how Chinese platforms are received in Vietnam.
1 articles
Diego Aritza
Latin America and Asia · Authoritarian rule compared · The Global South
Reads Asian authoritarianism and resistance from a Latin American perspective, comparing the CCP with Latin America's military regimes. Critical of the Latin American left's romance with China.
1 articles
Elena Vasquez-Mori
Interviews · Chinese exiles · China after the reform era
Writes long-form interviews with people who have left China, including the series The Accelerant Interviews. Interested in how exiles explain the end of the reform era.
1 articles
Lhamo Druktsen
Tibet · Exile and identity · Western tokenism
Writes about Tibetan exile, identity, and what it means to be asked to "represent suffering" for Western audiences.
1 articles
Melissa Qadir
Race and security policy · Civil liberties · Asian and Muslim communities
Writes about race, religion and security policy in the United States. Argues that standing up to the CCP must not repeat the witch-hunts and exclusion of the war on terror.
1 articles
Varek Havelin
Central Europe · Small states and great powers · Taiwan and Ukraine
Looks at great-power rivalry from the point of view of Central Europe's small states. Defends liberal democracy and sees Taiwan and Ukraine as part of the same struggle.
1 articles