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 […]

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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 […]

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The Soviet Union’s Kinkiest Collection

The collection’s story begins in the 1920s, when the Bolsheviks turned what was once the Rumyantsev arts museum  into the country’s national library. As the newly anointed Lenin Library began amassing new literature, it also opened a rare book department to house compromising materials, acquired primarily from confiscated noble libraries. Read Here – Moscow Times

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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. […]

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Why Revile The Victim?

Blithely ignoring the fact that his presidential predecessor ordered the invasion that plunged Iraq into its current chaos and instability, Obama seems to hold the Iraqis at fault for their present U.S.-induced predicament., argues Yuram Abdullah Weiler. Read Here – Tehran Times

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B2B Has A New Meaning In South Asia

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured Bhutan of India’s support during his first trip abroad, a move seen by many as an attempt to assert his country’s influence in South Asia where China has steadily made inroads. Read Here – Reuters Read More – Hindustan Times

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That Call For India As Superpower…Again

Iraq joined Syria in civil war and Ukraine’s crisis persisted this week. And yet let me argue that this week’s most important geopolitical news is the economic program of India’s new prime minister, Narendra Modi. Any increase in the chances for a full-scale supply-side transformation of India’s economy is reason to cheer for many reasons. First and […]

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Enlightened National Interest

The SAARC summit in Kathmandu this November will see all countries give another push to SAFTA, the free trade agreement, while they will discuss cooperation on everything from power distribution and roadways to the welfare of overseas workers. At a book launch in his house, Mr. Modi told journalists that “What happens in the countries […]

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Should The World Care About Mr. Obama?

For more than a decade, the Pew Research Center has been asking people around the world about their opinion of the United States. The upshot: In every region of the globe except the Middle East (where the United States was wildly unpopular under George W. Bush and remains so), America’s favorability is way up since Obama […]

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