While there were many reasons for the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s largest democracy to mend fences, perhaps the most important reason was the one that few officials could point to in public: the rise of China. In modern times, tensions between New Delhi and Beijing date back to their border war in 1962. […]
Is China, under its new president, Xi Jinping, undertaking its own diplomatic pivot, parallel to the United States’ “pivot to Asia”? Xi’s first significant international initiatives – making Russia his first official visit abroad, followed immediately by his attendance at the BRICS summit in South Africa – suggest that China may be seeking to place […]
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in Asia today for meetings seeking to reassure allies in South Korea and Japan and encourage new Chinese President Xi Jinping to increase pressure on North Korea to drop its threats and nuclear-weapons development. Kerry will ask China to abide by United Nations sanctions against North Korea and shut off the flow […]
Myanmar’s transition from military rule to democracy was never going to be easy, and the violent events of March show why it will be more complicated than previously thought. Contrary to the notion that democracy and pluralism go together, the new Burma is becoming a hot spot of sectarian violence. For sure, the problem is […]
The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the first treaty on the global arms trade, which seeks to regulate the $70 billion business in conventional arms and keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers. The official U.N. tally showed 154 votes in favor, 3 against and 23 abstentions, though diplomats […]
Put simply, then, China won the battle by choosing not to fight it. But this isn’t quite the whole story. In addition to avoiding the grave costs of the war, China capitalized by offering developing countries an attractive alternative to the United States: ideologically-blind economic engagement. And, as a result, Beijing was able to expand […]
The wars of the 21st century will be dominated by three overlapping types of conflict: Wars of Silicon, Wars of Iron, and Wars in the Shadows. The United States must design a new readiness and investment strategy in order to effectively deal with all three. Yet today it continues to pour scarce resources chiefly into […]
In a move that came as a surprise to no one, the nearly 3,000 delegates of the National People’s Congress elected 59-year-old Xi Jinping as president of China, replacing 70-year-old Hu Jintao, on March 14 in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi is expected to serve two five-year-terms, following precedent. The vote: one […]
Russia is resuming the supply of advanced weapon platforms to China in a move that may have implications for India. At the end of last year, Russia concluded a framework agreement with China for the sale of four Amur-1650 diesel submarines. In January it signed another intergovernmental agreement for the supply of Russia’s latest Su-35 long-range […]
It is striking that, more than a decade after America‘s 9/11 wars began, the U.S. military has not conducted a probing review of what it did wrong in handling the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and how to do better next time. Even as the Vietnam War wound down, the U.S. Army took a hard […]
looking beyond borders 