…the Iranian insistence that no wine be placed on the table came a few days after the point, on Rouhani’s European tour, when the Italians agreed to cover up some potentially offending nude statues that he might otherwise have glimpsed at an event in the Capitoline Museums, by placing big white boxes over them. The […]
As China’s power and status continue to grow, the big question for the whole world is how Beijing will use its newly acquired power to influence the world. It is safe to say that nobody within China has a satisfactory answer to this question. Still, we should pay serious attention to what Chinese scholars themselves […]
Geopolitically, most states in the Asia-Pacific region are embracing closer security and economic ties with the United States. At the same time, however, states across the region have become more sensitive to China’s growing political, economic, and military power, and are potentially vulnerable to Beijing’s increasingly coercive behavior. The U.S. relationship with China is complex, […]
China’s Arab Policy Paper stipulates the guiding principle for developing China-Arab relations, offers the blueprint for China-Arab mutually beneficial cooperation, and reiterates the political will of commitment to peace and stability in the Middle East, in order to promote China-Arab relations to a new and higher level. Read Here – Xinhua Read Full Text Here
Gulf Arab states rallied dutifully behind Saudi Arabia when it cut relations with Iran, recalling their ambassadors and cancelling flights to Tehran in solidarity with the oil-rich kingdom after its embassy in Iran was torched by protesters. But all apart from Bahrain stopped short of severing ties… Read Here – Zawya
The terrorist attacks on the Pathankot airbase and the Indian Consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif just days after Narendra Modi’s chai-pe-charcha with Nawaz Sharif in Lahore have prompted predictable responses in India: calls by hardliners to cancel talks with Pakistan, and by pragmatists and liberals to keep those talks on track, not to mention the usual paroxysms […]
India’s vast military forces, although well suited to fighting conventional conflicts against its principal adversaries—Pakistan and China—are still not configured to deal with urban terror attacks. To prevent future attacks, it needs to have dedicated, local paramilitary forces dispersed across vulnerable areas of the country. If India fails to adopt an adequate counterterrorism strategy, there […]
The Cuban missile crisis of October 1962 brought the world close to a nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. But the Kennedy-Khrushchev drama eclipsed another momentous event that occurred at the same time: a border war between the world’s most populous countries, China and India. A new book by Bruce Riedel, JFK’s Forgotten […]
Rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran have put Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on the spot again, providing a fresh example of how its Islamist/Sunni-driven “strategic plans” for the Middle East can be undermined by unforeseen developments. Read Here – Al Monitor
The U.N. Security Council plans to convene an emergency meeting Wednesday morning to discuss what North Korea says is its first successful hydrogen bomb test. Read Here – Nikkei Asian Review
