North Korea might be reined in, the thinking goes, if China could be persuaded to lean harder on its largest trading partner, and so the Trump administration is contemplating a variety of inducements that run from secondary sanctions on some Chinese banks and companies to a better trade deal for Beijing. Read Here – Defense […]
Evan Williams is the guy who opened up Pandora’s box. Until he came along, people had few places to go with their overflowing emotions and wild opinions, other than writing a letter to the newspaper or haranguing the neighbours. Mr. Williams — a Twitter founder, a co-creator of Blogger — set everyone free, providing tools […]
The world is about to mark the 50th anniversary of the June 1967 war between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Syria – a conflict that continues to stand out in a region with a modern history largely defined by violence. The war lasted less than a week, but its legacy remains pronounced a half-century later. […]
East Asia has usually been unipolar, and often hegemonic. Today the region has returned to unipolarity so quickly that almost nobody has noticed. Whether China can again become a hegemon, however, is far less certain. Read Here – The National Interest
The landslide re-election of Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, reflects the by now familiar pattern of continuity and change that has characterised Iran’s major elections over the last two decades. But it also stands out in one key way: Rouhani has remained popular despite pursuing painful macroeconomic stabilisation. Read Here – Project Syndicate
There are two major reasons China is able to move much faster than India on deals and aid, including a one-party system that gives Xi decision-making power far beyond what Modi is able to command. The world’s second-largest economy, China has far more resources, from the world’s largest foreign reserves, to some of its biggest […]
The attempt by Saudi Arabia and Gulf oil states to achieve hegemony in the Arab and Sunni Muslim worlds has proved disastrous for almost everybody. The capture of east Aleppo by the Syrian Army and the likely fall of Mosul to the Iraqi Army means defeat for that the Sunni Arabs in a great swathe […]
Just a few years back, the business relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia was pretty simple: the Americans bought oil, and the Saudis spent much of what they earned on equipment to keep the crude flowing and on planes, tanks and missiles to protect their borders. Read Here – Dawn
President Donald Trump had to travel to someone else’s kingdom to get the respect he has always craved. From his airport greeting by King Salman of Saudi Arabia — a courtesy that was never extended to his predecessor, President Barack Obama — to the military flyover and cannons that accompanied his descent from Air Force […]
Hassan Rouhani, who represented moderates and reformers in the Iranian presidential campaign, won 23.5 million (or 57 percent) of the total vote, while his closest rival, Ebrahim Raisi, received 15.7 million (38.5 percent), the Interior Ministry announced. Read Here – Tehran Times
looking beyond borders 