Myanmar And The Rush For Energy

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 […]

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Obama-Xi Summit Has Lessons For Japan

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 […]

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Diplomacy under Xi and Li in Full Swing

Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Trinidad and Tobago, Costa Rica and Mexico and hold a meeting with US President Barack Obama at Sunnylands, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Estate in California. This will be a new important step in the full swing of Chinese diplomacy since the new leadership took office. Read Here – […]

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Can Saudi Arabia Outlive North America’s New Energy Boom?

Current trends in the global energy market don’t look good for Saudi Arabia. First, the International Energy Agency projected in November 2012 that the United States will surpass the Gulf petrogiant as the world’s top energy producer by 2020. Then, last week, it revealed that North America, buoyed by the rapid development of its unconventional oil industry, […]

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Ireland And Its Tax Muddle

The Irish economy’s dependence on foreign multinationals is without parallel in the developed world. Foreign-owned companies account for a larger proportion of jobs – in both services and manufacturing – than in any other country in the 34-member OECD. Of the €177 billion earned from exports last year, 90 per cent was generated by non-Irish […]

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Churchill And Stalin Were Booze Buddies One Night

Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and Britain’s wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill enjoyed an alcohol-fueled all-nighter in Moscow as World War II was in full swing, previously secret files have revealed. Relations between the two leaders were stiff until Churchill arranged a tete-a-tete with Stalin, with the aid of interpreters, which led to a late-night boozy banquet in 1942, according to files released by Britain’s National Archives. Read […]

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Chinese Lessons In Diplomacy

India cannot afford to be complacent in spite the fact that the issue has been resolved in a win-win manner, as the Chinese media claims. In fact, the Ladakh border episode will be regarded as a watershed in the bilateral relations. India is faced with a new reality of having to deal with an assertive […]

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South Korea’s Not-Really-Iron Lady

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. During her ultimately victorious presidential campaign last year, South Korea’s new conservative president, Park Geun Hye, rarely touched on foreign policy. (Though it’s a fair question as to whether North Korea really constitutes “foreign” policy as far as Seoul is concerned.) When I traveled with Park as she campaigned across […]

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The South China Sea Challenge

As China fends off multilateral pressure and pushes to establish its growing quest for maritime rights, using naval flotillas, white-hulled coastal defense ships, fishery vessels, and even cruise ships to sail into contested waters throughout the South China Sea, Beijing is also striving to solidify the principle that only claimant states may deal with disputes. […]

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China’s Financial Commitments in Africa Are Far Higher Than Previous Estimates

China has committed $75bn (£48bn) on aid and development projects in Africa in the past decade, according to research which reveals the scale of what some have called Beijing’s escalating soft power “charm offensive” to secure political and economic clout on the continent. The Chinese government releases very little information on its foreign aid activities, […]

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