The storming of the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on Tuesday echoed events following the 2005 Danish publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad that led to widespread protest in 2006 and assaults on Danish embassies around the world. Today, Egypt’s president, Mohamed Morsi, and his government are playing the same role that his predecessor Hosni […]
Sometimes, raw courage is the only way to break political gridlock. With a flurry of bold executive decisions yesterday on foreign investment — the most extensive policy changes since his government was re-elected in 2009 — Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India has rediscovered his reformist zeal. India’s consumers, media watchers and flyers will benefit from the Cabinet’s approval of […]
Many Arabs believe that the Arab Spring is a Western, and more specifically an American, plan since the days of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to divide the Middle East into smaller rival nations to breed discord and plunder their wealth. Some subscribe to the theory that recent events in Egypt, Libya, Yemen […]
A new free-trade agreement is under negotiation in the Asia-Pacific. If the talks are successful, the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP) will bring closer together at least 11 economies in East Asia and the Americas. But it faces many hurdles, and raises broader geopolitical issues. For example, China, the world’s second-largest economy, is not part of […]
In the latest step in its naval modernization and expansion, China recently announced that it is accelerating serial production of an advanced destroyer. This will tilt the regional balance of power at sea in its favor and put it in a stronger position to enforce its sovereignty claims over Taiwan and in the South and […]
Russia is moving toward a major military buildup even though the external military threat is at an all-time low. The Moscow leadership is committed to pursuing this military course in one form or another, convinced that a strong army is needed in the unfolding world order and that the buildup will stimulate the country’s development. Meanwhile, many adhere to the conventional theory that maintaining a large military force is […]
I have been traveling most of this week, watching events in the Middle East unfold from the American heartland. The reaction among many of the people there was a mix of shock, anxiety, and fear. They also wanted to know why people are storming U.S. diplomatic compounds. Americans are in disbelief that this is happening […]
With the euro in crisis, Germany has come to seem like a lone island of fiscal stability in Europe. Its debt levels are modest, its government bonds are safe havens for investors around the world, and it has avoided the kinds of private credit booms and housing bubbles that have destabilized the rest of the […]
Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping (centre) has appeared in public for the first time in two weeks. Xi, who is expected to become China’s next leader, attended an event on Saturday to mark national science day, Xinhua news agency reported.
The immediate crisis involves a pair of post-revolutionary Arab countries — Egypt and Libya — that Obama has worked to ensure will be supporters of the United States as they endure difficult transitions from autocracies to self-government. Now part of a bitter U.S. presidential campaign, the attacks this week will test the diplomacy Obama will use […]
