Looking For An Enemy

It is true that China and the United States are not currently adversaries — certainly not in the way that the Soviet Union and the United States were during the Cold War. But the risk of a U.S.-Chinese crisis might actually be greater than it would be if Beijing and Washington were locked in a […]

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Acid Pen, Acid Acts

Joseph Djugashvili was a student in a theological seminary when he came across the writings of Vladimir Lenin and decided to become a Bolshevik revolutionary. Thereafter, in addition to blowing things up, robbing banks, and organizing strikes, he became an editor, working at two papers in Baku and then as editor of the first Bolshevik […]

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Pop Goes The Prez!

As president, (Barack) Obama has put all his knowledge of and experience with pop culture to work. His great insight has been that by being part of pop culture—being a celebrity himself—a president can influence how pop culture portrays him. Read Here – The Commentary  

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The Game Changing 8% Story

For over a quarter century, the one figure that dominated discussion of China’s economy was this: eight percent. Beginning in 1982, when leader Deng Xiaoping established the percentage as necessary to quadruple the size of the country’s GDP by 2000, China has seldom failed to achieve it—even in 2009, when the world was enduring the worst downturn since the Great Depression. […]

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The South Asian Handshake

No, it’s not the potential handshake between U.S. president Barack Obama and Iran‘s new president Hassan Rowhani (which didn’t ultimately pan out)—it’s the meeting of Pakistan‘s new prime minister Nawaz Sharif and India‘s outgoing prime minister Manmohan Singh that’s set to take place this weekend following this week’s United Nations General Assembly activity. Read Here […]

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The Eishenhower-Obama Debate

The Ike–Obama analogy creates an illusion of commonality and historic continuity where none exists. It is bad history, because it depicts Eisenhower as a two-dimensional figure, entirely detached from his key associates and their core beliefs. At the same time, the analogy presents us with a distorted view of Obama. Read Here – The Commentary

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If Only The Arms Hadn’t Been Chopped…

It’s a nationalist myth that Indian independence was won by militant Congress direct action and that partition was the inevitable price exacted by a pro-Muslim colonial power determined to divide and rule. On the contrary, effective independence was implicit in the progressive constitutional reforms introduced by the Raj in 1909 and 1919, well before Gandhi […]

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Has A Warrior Nation Turned Anti-War?

We are, famously or notoriously, a warrior nation. From the 18th-century continental wars to the imperial battles, the world conflicts, and the post-colonial fighting of our own times, the British have prided themselves on being first with the bayonet. Our royal family and many of our national occasions are tightly interwoven with militarism. Our bookshops have […]

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