A Digital State Without a Privacy Culture?
The Maldives is moving towards a more digitised state at the same time that recent…
Section
Analysis
Why Care Work Should Be Treated as Economic Infrastructure
The gender gap in Malé’s labour market is often treated as a social issue, but…
Press Freedom in Maldives Faces Fresh Scrutiny
The police raid on Adhadhu’s newsroom has brought the Maldives’ press freedom debate into a…
A Revolving Door at the Top: Can SOEs Deliver Like This?
Leadership at some of the Maldives’ most important state-owned enterprises has become increasingly transient, with…
When the State Becomes the Competitor
The government’s decision to extend the free “Malé Taxi” service beyond its initial trial period…
A Serious Crisis, An Unserious Response
Rising fuel prices, disrupted shipping routes, and tightening aviation networks are no longer distant risks.…
Maldives Referendum Puts Election Timing and Power Dynamics to the Test
Ballots scheduled for 4 April will ask Maldivians to decide on a change that, at…
Energy Dependence and Economic Risk: Lessons from the Middle East Conflict
MVR 10 billion. That is how much the Maldives spent on fuel imports in 2025, according…
Expat Worker Housing Exposes Longstanding Safety Failures
A fire that broke out in an expatriate worker accommodation block in ADh. Dhigurah last…
The Contradictions in Maldives Public Health Policy
The Maldives has spent the past two years presenting itself as unusually serious about public…
The Tourism Trap and the Illusion of Resilience
The escalation of the Iran conflict has begun to ripple through the Maldivian economy with…
The Politics of Projects and the Arithmetic of Debt
By any visual measure, the Maldives appears to be in the middle of a transformation.…
Maldives’ Plan to Align Elections Tests the Country’s Built-In Checks on Power
The government has been selling a deceptively simple idea: run the presidential and parliamentary elections…
Maldives’ Chagos Claim Meets the World as It Is
For decades, the Chagos Archipelago was a distant colonial quarrel between London and Port Louis,…
Why Maldives Needs an AI Strategy Before the Technology Decides for Us
Artificial intelligence has moved beyond novelty. What was once framed as experimentation has now entered…
Haze Over the Maldives Highlights a Regional Pollution Problem
A spell of haze continues to affect parts of the Maldives, reducing visibility and impacting…
2026: A Year of Reckoning for Maldives
Maldives has a habit of turning tomorrow’s constraints into today’s politics. But 2026 is different,…
Sri Lanka Incident Exposes Gaps in Maldives’ Foreign Policy Accountability
A familiar foreign policy problem resurfaced recently, not through a formal dispute between governments, but…
New Year, New Intellectual Property Office; Shift in Economic and Creative Policy
The Maldives began 2026 with the formal establishment of the Maldives Intellectual Property Office (MIPO),…
Maldives in 2025: An Economy Under Strain and a Presidency That Centralised Power
The Maldives closed 2025 grappling with two intertwined realities. The first was economic pressure that…
Why Targeting the Workforce the Maldives Relies On May Backfire
Nationalism is often sold as protection. In practice, it frequently begins with classification, moves into…
The Second Engine of Maldives’ Economy Is Stuttering. Can Fisheries Be Fixed in Time?
When yellowfin vessels gathered off Malé on Fishermen’s Day 2025, the scene had a familiar…
Maldives’ Democracy Is Only As Strong As Its Opposition
The Maldivian Democratic Party enters the final stretch of 2025 arguably in a weaker position…
Debt, Rent and the Race to Keep Up: A Portrait of the Maldivian Middle Class
On most evenings in Malé, the signs of prosperity are easy to spot. New cafés…