This month marks the 70th anniversary of the Red Army‘s victory at the Battle of Stalingrad, prompting renewed debate over the legacy of Josef Stalin. Once again, many conservative Russians are hoping that the name Volgograd will one day be permanently changed back to Stalingrad. As a nod to them, local Volgograd deputies agreed to call the city Stalingrad during the six days of the battle’s anniversary every year. […]
China surpassed the U.S. to become the world’s biggest trading nation last year as measured by the sum of exports and imports of goods, a milestone in the Asian nation’s challenge to the U.S. dominance in global commerce that emerged after the end of World War II. U.S. exports and imports of goods last year […]
Russia’s ruling regime is persisting in its attempts to rehabilitate the name of Joseph Stalin. For Vladimir Putin, this has been a consistent course—from the reinstated melody of Stalin’s national anthem to new school textbooks justifying Stalin’s mass purges as “adequate to the task of modernization.” In 2010, as Russia marked the 65th anniversary of […]
Since World War II’s end, the dollar has been used to invoice most global trade, serving as the intermediary currency for clearing international payments among banks and dominating official foreign-exchange reserves. This arrangement has often been criticized, but is there any viable alternative? The problem for postwar Europe, mired in depression and inflation, was that […]
Over the past year, as Japan has engaged in ugly territorial tussles with China and South Korea, outside observers have fretted about the country’s shift to the right. That trend seemed to be confirmed by the election of the conservative Shinzo Abe, who returned to office as prime minister last December, having previously served in […]
As we debate whether the two parties can ever come together and get things done, here’s something President Obama could probably do by himself that would be a signal accomplishment of his presidency: End the war on terror. Or, more realistically, start planning and preparing the country for phasing it out. For 11 years, the […]
The backlash after the heady Arab revolutions of 2011. The rumblings of war with nuclear-aspiring Iran. The bloody persistence of Bashar al-Assad in civil war-torn Syria. Not to mention a Europe mired in its biggest crisis since World War II and an American presidential campaign that distracted and depressed in equal measure. If ever there […]
The second term Obama administration is taking office facing challenging economic conditions. The economy continues to expand, yet the pace is disappointingly slow. The unemployment rate has fallen below 8 percent for the first time in almost 4 years, but is still unacceptably high. The economic expansion remains fragile and vulnerable to risks associated with […]
While the civil war in Syria continues to grab headlines, prompting some in the international community to call for immediate intervention, another major conflict, displacing thousands of civilians, rages in Central Africa. Despite the rising number of refugees and internally displaced persons, as well as the reports of massive human rights violations being committed against the local […]
Fifty-two years ago, the United States and Japan signed the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security. Forged just 15 years after a brutal, racially charged war between the two nations, the treaty was an exercise in realpolitik. It was written with an eye toward not only Japan‘s security but the containment of communism across Asia. The […]
looking beyond borders 