What’s A Bit Of Sea Between Good Neighbours?

India took a step toward tighter ties with Bangladesh this month in surrendering its four-decade claim to a swathe of the Bay of Bengal about the size of Lake Ontario, opting to heed a United Nations-backed ruling…The decision provides a contrast with China, which declines to acknowledge any UN jurisdiction in its dispute with the […]

Rate this:

India-U.S. Relations: After A Year Of Drift

As Mr. Kerry is in India for his mission of what he calls “realising the potentially transformational moment” between India and the United States, he may well find that and many issues do in fact need to be addressed further, before he can effect such a transformation. Perhaps the best way to avoid some of […]

Rate this:

Can India And China Be Friends?

China has lots of capital, and India needs to build a huge amount of infrastructure. But, as ever, something that seems simple on the surface is made considerably murkier due to politics. Of the many contested land borders the People’s Republic of China had when established in 1949, many of the remaining ones are with […]

Rate this:

Immigration Helps; Ask Germany

Germany’s triumphant World Cup team included players of Polish, Turkish, African, and Arab descent, showcasing the country’s increasingly multi-ethnic complexion. What’s less well-known is that a record flood of immigrants is also giving a big boost to the German economy. Over the past five years, Germany has surpassed Britain to become Europe’s No. 1 immigration […]

Rate this:

Don’t Push Your Banker

Why would China fear a nation it could traumatize tomorrow by dumping its debt or shifting its iron ore, coal and copper orders elsewhere? That’s a good question for the United States to ask itself. Read Here – Bloomberg

Rate this:

A New Bank, BRIC By BRIC; India To Preside

Leaders of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — all emerging market nations — launch a $100 billion development bank and a currency reserve pool in their first concrete step toward reshaping the Western-dominated international financial system. The bank, aimed at funding infrastructure projects in developing nations will be based in Shanghai and […]

Rate this:

Tectonic Shifts

The key reason for China’s aggressive posturing on the seas is the tectonic shift in Beijing’s strategic environment that occurred following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. For the first time in its long history, China no longer faces any threat whatsoever on its northern frontiers and this immense geopolitical development largely explains […]

Rate this:

Great Neighbours, Great Powers

While there is considerable room for debate over the future extent of Sino-Russian relations (a formal alliance looks far from likely), it is worth considering the potential geopolitical implications of a growing entente between the two Great Powers. In no short measure, close alignment between Beijing and Moscow would accelerate the decline of U.S. relative power […]

Rate this:

Authoritarian Arrogance

In the 1930s travellers returned from Mussolini’s Italy, Stalin’s Russia, and Hitler’s Germany praising the hearty sense of common purpose they saw there, compared to which their own democracies seemed weak, inefficient, and pusillanimous. Democracies today are in the middle of a similar period of envy and despondency. Authoritarian competitors are aglow with arrogant confidence. […]

Rate this: