No Case For Non-Interference
China’s international role is changing. But the country is struggling to reconcile its traditional foreign policy of non-interference with its growing economic presence around the world. Read Here – Asia Centre
A Different Middle Class
The middle class in China remains an essential part of the state from which it has emerged and is not very likely to be the Chinese equivalent of the European or North American bourgeoisie with whom it is often equated. Read Here – Christian Science Monitor
India’s Defence Pains
Bureaucratic bungles are denying Indian forces arms they desperately need, writes James Hardy Read Here – The Diplomat
Europe And Its God
One of Pope Benedict XVI’s big concerns as pontiff was the decline of Christianity in Europe as secularization has spread. For instance, he regretted that, despite strong Vatican pressure, the drafters of the EU Constitution had not seen fit to include anywhere a reference to Europe’s Christian roots. Read Here – WorldAffairsJournal
Velvet Power
Since the so-called Visegrad Four—the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia—shook off the Soviet yoke and topped a decade of successful political and economic reform by rejoining the West in its most exclusive clubs, the European Union and NATO, they have begun to pursue their own objectives, and they have distinguished themselves as actors on […]
And Whatever Happened To France?
It is this longer-term erosion that speaks to France’s economic failure. Germany offers a useful counterpoint. Whereas ten years ago the French economy rivaled Germany’s, today France produces only half the value added. French exports, having fallen more than 20 percent since 2005, are lower today than anytime during the last twenty years. Read Here […]
Born Not To Be King?
His Royal Highness Prince Charles Philip Arthur George, Prince of Wales, KG, KT, GCB, OM, AK, QSO, PC, ADC, Earl of Chester, Duke of Cornwall, Duke of Rothesay, Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland, might have led a dull, dutiful life of ribbon cutting and rite. […]
Are You Bugging My Phone?
The furore over the scale of American mass surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden shifted to an incendiary new level when Angela Merkel of Germany called Barack Obama to demand explanations over reports that the US National Security Agency was monitoring her mobile phone. Read Here – The Guardian
In CHOGM Lies Opportunities And Challenges For Sri Lanka
It ought to be remembered that for all the flak Sri Lanka has attracted, CHOGM 2013 presents enormous opportunities, directly flowing from hosting the summit itself and deriving from the international credibility the event can restore to Sri Lanka more generally. The government must take seriously the opportunities that CHOGM brings to the country and its peoples, who […]
Never Saw It Coming?
The demise of Bear Stearns was the beginning of a six-month erosion in global financial stability that would culminate with the failure of Lehman Brothers on September 15, 2008, triggering possibly the greatest financial crisis in history. To be sure, the Great Depression of the 1930s involved a far greater collapse in economic activity. But […]
