Who Blinked First?

The meeting everybody wanted did not happen. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for home without meeting his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. The two leaders lived in the same hotel — the Waldorf Astoria — during the 70th UN General Assembly. Twice, they shared a room and used the same podium to address a summit meeting […]

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Can Modi’s Visit Upgrade Sino-Indian Ties?

Modi has been busy strengthening India’s ties with neighboring countries to compete with China, while trying to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities for economic development created by China, as Beijing is actively carrying forward the “One Belt and One Road” initiative. Modi has also been playing little tricks over border disputes and security issues, […]

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The Big Delete Machine

The final statistics from a 2014 Chinese Internet crackdown are in, and they are staggering. On Jan. 17, Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, announced that Chinese websites had deleted one billion posts in 2014 as part of a government-led operation to jing wang, meaning to “cleanse the web.” Read Here – TeaLeafNation  

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Revolution Instragramed

As anti-government protests escalated in Ukraine in February, activists took to Facebook and Twitter to popularize a name for the revolutionary movement. They called it “Euromaidan,” after the pro-European bent of the demonstrators and the central square in the capital where they were massing. Read Here – The Atlantic

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Showmanship Vs Substance

For this round, Abe and Modi nurtured their personal relationship and the summitry generated momentum toward enhanced cooperation. But tapping the potential for enhanced security cooperation and business ties will require painstaking negotiations to bridge differences. India is pursuing a hedging strategy vis-a-vis China and that places constraints on what will develop with Tokyo. Read […]

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Neither Atatürk Nor A Sultan

Mr Erdogan and his political machine are both thoroughly modern, and as able as any other modern political machine to deploy sophisticated, well-organised, disingenuous and cynical methods, including demagoguery, spin, polling and gerrymandering to win votes. (Mr Erdogan can also boast real economic achievements, however problematic.) All this is a much different from the situation […]

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