On the second leg of his first overseas trip as China’s head of state, Xi Jinping is visiting a number of destinations in Africa, including Tanzania, the Republic of Congo, and South Africa where he will attend the 5th BRICS Leaders Summit in Durban. Xi’s trip reflects the growing importance China places on Africa in […]
The atmospherics surrounding Xi Jinping’s coming trip to Russia – his first visit to a foreign country as China’s new president – remind me of a slogan from my early childhood in the late 1950’s: “Russia-China, Friendship Forever.” The irony is that, even in that slogan’s heyday, Sino-Russian relations were deteriorating fast, culminating in spasms […]
Something odd happened during Wednesday’s press conference between Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu. When asked to address the Palestinian issue, the U.S. president on three occasions said that he would have more to say when he spoke directly to the Israeli people. The apparent takeaway is that for Obama, spending (wasting?) too much time trying […]
The Tallinn Manual, the first attempt to lay down international ground rules for cyberwar, was published this week under the direction of NATO’s think tank, the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence. Written by more than 40 academics, lawyers, and experts from NATO countries, the 282-page manual defines under which conditions a country can respond to […]
In 2001, when Jim O’Neill of Goldman Sachs coined the acronym BRIC to refer to Brazil, Russia, India, and China, the world had high hopes for the four emerging economies, whose combined GDP was expected to reach $128.4 trillion by 2050, dwarfing America’s projected GDP of $38.5 trillion. When the four countries’ leaders gather on March 26 […]
In its rush to fete Myanmar‘s president, Thein Sein, and capitalize on the country’s tentative opening, the international community has turned a blind eye toward the ongoing repression of minorities and the continued political dominance of the military. In doing so, it has given up much of its leverage over Sein at the very time […]
The US$1.92 billion settlement reached between HSBC and the U.S. Department of Justice this past December over allegations of money laundering by the global bank served as a stark reminder to all financial institutions: The penalty for breaking sanctions against Iran and other blacklisted nations would not only be severe, but even the biggest institutions […]
Ten years ago, Germany was considered the sick man of Europe. Its economy was mired in recession, while the rest of Europe was recovering; its unemployment rate was higher than the eurozone average; it was violating the European budget rules by running excessive deficits; and its financial system was in crisis. A decade later, Germany […]
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Egyptians officials and opposition politicians to overcome their differences for the sake of the country’s faltering economy…Kerry, making his first visit to Egypt as secretary of state, urged Egyptians to respect democratic rights, engage with each other and compromise in order to restore the economy. Kerry’s goal is […]
As the U.S. and China tussle over high-profile trade disputes and geopolitical tensions, a scuffle in yet another arena — the securities market — has been brewing and threatens to boil over soon, say experts. U.S. securities regulators are frustrated in their efforts to go after Chinese companies that listed on U.S. stock exchanges through […]
