Tag: Japan

Written by lookingbeyondborders

China’s New Militancy

“We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully—not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear,”President Obama said in his second inaugural address. How exactly does the international community “engage” hostile states?  Take China, for instance. Xi […]

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Written by lookingbeyondborders

Life in a G-Zero World

The nature of world politics has changed more rapidly in the past four years than anyone expected. From the fall of the Berlin Wall up to the financial crisis of 2008, the United States had enjoyed a unprecedented period of hegemony. A decade ago, the US defense budget by itself was larger than the combined […]

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Written by lookingbeyondborders

The Asian Sleepwalkers

Whether East Asia’s politicians and pundits like it or not, the region’s current international relations are more akin to nineteenth-century European balance-of-power politics than to the stable Europe of today. Witness East Asia’s rising nationalism, territorial disputes, and lack of effective institutional mechanisms for security cooperation. While economic interdependence among China, Japan, South Korea, and […]

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In Davos, the World Economic Forum’s Big, Unintelligible Ideas

This week the world’s wealthiest and the best-connected have gathered in Switzerland for the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting. An exceedingly diverse group of business and policy titans are schmoozing, paneling, and work-shopping their way through the world’s top intractables: climate change; a tattered euro zone; and who could forget the eternally vexing problem of “Catalysing Multistakeholder Value”? […]

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Written by lookingbeyondborders

Senator John Kerry Appeared Before The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Which He Still Chairs, To Discuss The Foreign Policy He Would Promote As The Next Secretary Of State.

Sen. John Kerry used his confirmation hearing Thursday to paint an expansive picture of the foreign policy he would promote as the next secretary of State – saying economic development, climate change, and human rights must be as much a part of America’s role in the world as “drones and deployment.” Appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations […]

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Written by lookingbeyondborders

Asia’s Other Island Spat

Earlier this month, former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori appeared on national television and drew a line on the map separating Japan from Russia. Mori’s line was directly northeast of three of the disputed isles (Kunashiri, Shikotan and Habomai) but intentionally stopped short of including the largest island, Etorofu, which remained in Russian territory and […]

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Written by lookingbeyondborders

Davos Leaders Uneasy Over Glut Of Easy Money

The world is awash in easy money, with consequences that are starting to worry some central bankers and business leaders at the DavosWorld Economic Forum (WEF), though so far inflation fears seem overdone. With developed world government finances constrained by huge debts and deficits, central banks have pumped trillions of dollars into the system to try to […]

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