New Delhi will be confronted by a host of rapidly changing scenarios in Afghanistan as the country heads for transition in the security and political sectors in 2014. The interplay between different actors jockeying for power could either allow India to retain its present level of engagement, provide opportunities to expand its influence or bring […]
Secrecy is only supposed to work for the strong against the weak. Right now Edward Snowden, the former CIA technical operative who leaked data exposing the extent of Anglo-American state internet surveillance to the world, is in hiding in Hong Kong. Snowden, 29, sacrificed everything to tell the world. Read Here – New Statesman
China’s lack of transparency has long posed a daunting challenge to outside observers trying to understand what the government’s interests, goals, and intentions are. Gary King, a Professor in Government at Harvard University, has provided telling new insights into these questions with his research on the government’s censorship of social media websites. Read Here – The […]
Little noticed during last weekend’s milestone summit between Barack Obama and Xi Jinping was another landmark event: China’s currency hit a record high, reaching almost 6 yuan to the dollar. In recent years, one of the few things Republicans and Democrats could agree upon was that an artificially cheap yuan damaged U.S. exports and stole U.S. jobs. The […]
Burma’s transition to a world of economic opportunity, and political freedom was always going to be difficult, and the success of the new regime is still far from assured. Decades of corrupt military rule have left deep scars on the country. And recovering from this will be extremely difficult whilst ever these same military people […]
The country has 7.8 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, worth about $75 billion at current U.K. benchmark prices. Neighbors India and China covet the stuff. In a recent report, the McKinsey Global Institute estimated that energy and industries such as agriculture need a combined $320 billion through 2030 for Myanmar’s economy to […]
This style of summitry is in marked contrast to the recent bilateral meetings held between President Obama and his counterparts in Japan, America’s key ally in Asia. From the outset of Obama’s presidency, Japanese prime ministers have made a point of being the first in line among world leaders to meet with him at the […]
China and the United States will increase comprehensive exchanges, as the countries commit to building a new type of power relationship, the presidents of the world’s two largest economies said. After the first meeting of their two-day summit, President Xi Jinping and US counterpart, Barack Obama, stressed the importance of the countries’ ties in a globalized […]
China is subverting the status quo in the South and East China Seas, on its border with India, and even concerning international riparian flows – all without firing a single shot. Just as it grabbed land across the Himalayas in the 1950’s by launching furtive encroachments, China is waging stealth wars against its Asian neighbors that threaten […]
Just a few months ago, Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and now President Barack Obama’s choice to be the next national security adviser, saw her main chance to become secretary of state dissipate before her eyes, as Senate Republicans excoriated her for, as they saw it, misleading the public about the attacks on […]
looking beyond borders 