The recent Third Plenum of the 18th Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee inaugurated a number of significant reforms. Among the most interesting developments is China’s establishment of a new “State Security Committee” (SSC), an important step in further centralizing power into the hands of the party’s top leadership. Read Here – The Diplomat
With the United States bogged down by economic troubles at home, wriggling to organize its departure from Afghanistan and grappling with a variety of crises in the Middle East, it comes as no surprise that China is using the opportunity to invest considerable time and money into reviving the so-called Silk Road. Read Here – RealClearWorld
One future is an Asia that is relatively familiar: a region whose economies continue to enjoy robust levels of growth and manage to avoid conflict with one another. The second future could hardly be more different: an Asia of increased tensions, rising military budgets, and slower economic growth. Read Here – Council On Foreign Relations
American defense planners therefore need to accept the obvious: budget cuts are here to stay. The time to plan for cutbacks and start reshaping the military was two years ago, when the writing was already on the wall. Since that never happened, the government must catch up fast. Read Here – Foreign Affairs
The realignment that is taking place is as much attitudinal as structural. By sheer dint of size and scope, if countries no longer look to the United States for leadership there will be global ramifications. In a world with multiple centers of influence, from China to Latin America to India and sub-Saharan Africa, new actors […]
Military competition between the the U.S. and China is on the rise even as the two foster closer links, with China’s defense budget more than doubling since 2006. Though its military spending is less than one-fifth of the U.S., China has developed drones, stealth fighters and an aircraft carrier while deploying a type of anti-ship ballistic missile […]
A new and unprecedented report prepared by a team of Chinese and American strategic thinkers concludes that the two countries are not adequately addressing critical global challenges of the 21st century. Read Here – The Atlantic Council
The public assertions made by Indian and American officials that no content was taken from India’s internet and telephone networks by U.S.’s National Security Agency (NSA) and that the American surveillance programs just looked at “patterns of communication” as a counter-terrorism measure are far from the truth, if not outright misleading, writes The Hindu. Read […]
Beijing has offered little information about the investigation of several executives from China’s top oil producer, except to accuse them of “severe breaches of discipline,” a phrase often used to invoke bribery and corruption. But the focus on the oil industry itself and specific investigation of two of the four executives adds fuel to a growing sense that […]
Unlike many countries that have passed laws to protect citizens’ privacy, the Indian state is collecting more and more information about private individuals under various pretexts and restricting their right to access their own information. Read Here – The Hindu
looking beyond borders 