Elephants are often confined to narrow corridors between patches of forest. Vivek Menon of the Wildlife Trust of India says that in 2010 his team identified 88 such routes. Today there are about 150, reflecting shrinking habitats. As infrastructure cuts through forests, elephants stray into farms. Mining and blasting sites also get in their way. In West Bengal hulla (“noise”) parties see mobs hurl fireballs and firecrackers to drive the animals away, despite a Supreme Court ban. Electric fences sometimes block the elephants’ path. But they are excellent physicists, says Raman Sukumar, an ecologist. They use their tusks, which are poor electrical conductors, to break fences, or toss logs to short-circuit them. Forest guards and workers steering elephants back to safety are “utterly under-equipped and woefully unprepared”, says Prerna Bindra, a conservationist. Most lack basic equipment such as torches. But not all is doom. Poaching for ivory has fallen since the 1980s. Co- ordination between state forestry departments and national customs has improved. Today India has a Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and states have anti-poaching plans. Last month India’s Supreme Court upheld the removal of commercial activity from an elephant corridor in Tamil Nadu. Elephants act as landscape architects. They disperse seeds, shape forests and fertilise soil. They keep wetlands alive by digging. “Arthashastra” advised India’s rulers to protect forests inhabited by the magnificent beasts. Those in charge today would do well to take note. ■ Stay on top of our India coverage by signing up to Essential India, our free weekly newsletter. This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com/asia/2026/08/20/indian-elephants-are-being-squeezed-out- of-their-habitats
Donald Trump abruptly scales back an exercise with South Korea In doing so, he has further undermined trust in America’s alliances Aug 20th 2026 ULCHI FREEDOM SHIELD, an annual military exercise, brings thousands of American and South Korean troops together to train to counter threats from North Korea. This summer’s edition began on August 17th, and the allies planned to focus on responding to new capabilities that North Korean soldiers acquired while fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine, such as drone warfare. But the night before the exercises were due to start, President Donald Trump ordered his Department of War to “substantially reduce” (by six days) the manoeuvres, citing the cost of the drills, South Korea’s refusal to support his war in Iran and his “very good relationship with Kim Jong Un”, North Korea’s dictator.
Mr Trump presumably hopes to entice Mr Kim to restart the diplomatic engagement the two men began during his first term in office. He may also want to press South Korea into accelerating its promised investments into America. And he doubtless hopes to distract attention from his Iranian quagmire. But his abrupt decision sends worrying messages to both friends and foes across Asia. The prospect of more talks between the leaders, however unlikely, causes anxiety in the capitals of American allies. (North Korea called Mr Trump’s move an empty gesture, though Mr Trump insisted on August 19th that he would be meeting Mr Kim later this year.) Japan, in particular, worries that Mr Trump could cut a bad deal that undermines its security. The move heightens fears of American abandonment that have been growing since his return to office. Adversaries may conclude that America’s commitments to its allies are hollow. This is not the first time Mr Trump has used exercises with South Korea as a bargaining chip. When he met Mr Kim in Singapore in 2018, the first summit between American and North Korean leaders, Mr Trump said that America would halt upcoming drills with South Korea. The move stunned his own advisers. But the unilateral concession did not bring about a breakthrough; a subsequent meeting between the two men, in Hanoi the following year, collapsed in acrimony. South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung, shares Mr Trump’s desire to revive engagement with the North. On August 19th-20th his government hosted China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, in Seoul, in part to discuss ongoing efforts to reach out to Mr Kim. Yet Mr Lee also acknowledges the importance of maintaining deterrence, which Mr Trump has weakened. Mr Trump has long been sceptical of the value of America’s alliance with South Korea. During his first term he sought to withdraw American troops from the country, but was stymied by Congress. Since returning to office, his administration has made quiet but consequential changes to the alliance. America has, for example, moved to reorient the mission of its 28,500 troops in South Korea away from their traditional focus on the peninsula and towards deterring China. He has also used tariffs to extract a pledge from South Korea to invest $350bn in America. Mr Trump has not hesitated to
link the future of the security alliance to the flow of investment deals. His decision to curtail the exercises came as South Korea’s industry minister was visiting Washington to discuss the stalled implementation of those plans. Even before the latest announcement, Mr Trump’s transactional approach to the alliance had undermined trust in America. Polling by the East Asia Institute, a think-tank in Seoul, found the share of South Koreans who trust America plunged from 85% in 2022 to 46% this year. Fear of abandonment has also fuelled discussions about South Korea acquiring nuclear weapons. Mr Lee has said he opposes that course. But he has sought to develop the capacity to enrich and reprocess nuclear fuel for the civilian nuclear-power industry, which would make building the bomb easier if South Korea ever deemed it necessary. Following Mr Trump’s announcement, he reiterated his intention to move forward with those plans. Similar dynamics are at work across the region. Perceptions of American reliability have fallen steeply between 2022 and 2026 in Australia, Japan and Singapore, according to the Pew Research Centre. Japan has also sought to beef up its own defences; the drive for greater autonomy is shaping revisions to its national security strategy expected later this year. Yet in the face of threats from a richer and increasingly assertive China and a nuclear-armed North Korea, American allies in Asia find it hard to imagine their security without America. Despite the falling level of trust, more than 60% of South Koreans still see the alliance with America as the best way to ensure their security. Such results, writes Sohn Yul, the president of the East Asia Institute, reflect a “contradictory situation where [South Korea] does not trust the United States yet has no choice but to rely on it.” The dilemma is shared across Asia. ■ For exclusive coverage of Asian politics, economics and security, sign up to Asia Bulletin, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter. This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com/asia/2026/08/17/donald-trump-abruptly-scales-back-an- exercise-with-south-korea
Kazakhstan prepares to vote in a cosmetic election Despite promises of renewal, it is still an authoritarian state Aug 20th 2026 “Vote for renewal,” urge giant billboards as Kazakhstan heads into a parliamentary election on August 23rd. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the president, calls this a turning point in the building of a “new Kazakhstan”— shorthand for a political reset that began after civil unrest demanding political change had left at least 238 people dead in 2022. At first glance, much about this election is indeed new. Taking place under a new constitution, it will deliver a parliament with a new structure and a new name, certain to be dominated by a new party. This, ostensibly, is the reforming “new Kazakhstan” in action. But scratch the surface and the political trappings of the old Kazakhstan—associated with Nursultan Nazarbayev, Mr Tokayev’s long-serving predecessor and discredited
political patron—emerge. The newly formed Justice party that is set to win a big parliamentary majority is in fact a revamped version of the old ruling party that dominated for decades. And parliament will still be a rubber- stamp affair, because no genuine opposition parties are being allowed to run. Pluralism is thriving in Kazakhstan, so Mr Tokayev said recently—only days after Amangeldy Dzhakhin, an opposition leader, had been jailed for seven years on spurious charges of extremism. His predecessor suffered the same fate, and it is not just politicians who are targeted. Reporters and social-media personalities have also been variously imprisoned, slapped with travel bans and barred from doing journalism on flimsy-looking charges. In a blatantly political case, a satirical post poking fun at the president recently landed a YouTuber behind bars. This election follows the adoption of a new constitution, which Mr Tokayev has depicted as Kazakhstan “casting off the super-presidential form of rule”. That was a reference to his predecessor, who monopolised power for three decades before resigning in 2019. Mr Nazarbayev’s designated successor was Mr Tokayev. The pair ruled in tandem until the 2022 unrest, which left Mr Nazarbayev sidelined and Mr Tokayev scrambling to dissociate himself from his former mentor. He rolled back some presidential powers in 2022, but clawed some back again in the new constitution, adopted by referendum against a backdrop of arrests of critics. One important reform remains in force. In 2022 Mr Tokayev introduced a single presidential term-limit. He has pledged to abide by this, but the constitution offers him a loophole. He has the right to a new “first” term, the Constitutional Court recently ruled, so he could run again—a tried-and- tested tactic to cling to power loved by Central Asian autocrats as well as by Vladimir Putin in Russia and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey. The end of his current (second) term in 2029 will thus become a litmus test of Mr Tokayev’s professed commitment to ridding Kazakhstan of monarchical rule. ■ For exclusive coverage of Asian politics, economics and security, sign up to Asia Bulletin, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter. This article was downloaded by zlibrary from https://www.economist.com/asia/2026/08/20/kazakhstan-prepares-to-vote-in-a- cosmetic-election
India’s refounding fathers Nation-building is even harder the second time round Aug 20th 2026 EVERY COUNTRY has a national anthem. Some, like New Zealand, have two. But only India has an official song as well. This year, for the first time, “Vande Mataram”, a rousing tribute to “Mother India”, featured in Independence Day celebrations, greeting Narendra Modi as he arrived to give his annual speech on August 15th. An air-force helicopter flew past with a banner commemorating 150 years of the song’s composition. It marked the culmination of a years-long effort by Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to boost its status. A few days earlier it had become a criminal offence to disrupt its singing. Mr Modi spoke of India’s achievements as it enters its 80th year of independence. He looked ahead to its glorious centenary. Such