I saw these two reports within a few minutes of each other and the contrast wasn’t exactly hard to see. The first piece detailed China’s rapidly increasing military spending:
China’s defense budget will double by 2015, making it more than the rest of the Asia …
by Robert Latin and Tim LaRocco
The National Hockey League tragically lost three members of its family this past off-season. The untimely deaths of three “enforcers” — Derek Boogard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak — as well as the NHL’s continuing problem with concussions has rejuvenated criticism …
Thanks to Real Clear History, I found this fascinating story about how the United States used spy satellites to map Soviet Russia’s territory during the Cold War. It is from The Atlantic magazine and features an informative video that explains the 1950′s program in a very …
As the clock ticks, it appears Israel will have to pick between two frightful scenarios; attack Iran or live with a nuclear Iran and the constant fear of annihilation.
This choice crossed my mind during a recent trip to Israel. While at the ancient fortress of Masada …
I recently came across two worthwhile pieces on Persian Gulf states punching above their weight. The first is a New York Times analysis of Qatar, the lil’ oil rich country that could:
Qatar is smaller than Connecticut, and its native population, at 225,000, wouldn’t fill Cairo’s bigger …
Iran is back in the news again: bungled attempt to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US on American territory, IAEA’s upcoming report which is expected to detail how the Islamic Republic is working toward a nuclear weapon’s program, President Ahmadinejad’s growing feud with the Supreme Leader, and …
When eminent scholar Walter Russell Mead tackles a subject he does not do it on the cheap. One of his latest long articles attempts to discern the current trajectory of Turkey’s foreign policy and he takes his readers through quite a ride. Mead, an …
With America’s latest market crash, the debt debate seems so ‘last week’ (hey, it was last week!), there is still much to learn from the tumultuous process. Niall Ferguson attempts to provide an outside perspective on the whole debt limit battle. It’s a pretty important outside perspective too; …
I just spent my Saturday morning doing some solid nerding. By that I mean, I read two great articles about that rising behemoth, China. The first was ‘China’s Bumpy Road Ahead by international consultant and geopolitical analyst Ian Bremmer. Bremmer, has a blog at Foreign Policy …
Over the past several weeks the debate over lifting Europe’s ban on arms sales to the PRC Government has gained momentum.
Enacted following the Tienanmen Square massacre of 1989, the ban was initially effected with the concern that such arms might be turned against China’s domestic population. Most recently, however, …
Testifying before Congress last week, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced the Department’s intent to reduce defense spending by $78 billion in addition to the forthcoming $100 billion in spending cuts over the next five years through new efficiencies. Tamir Eschel of Defense Update provides an overview of …
A development of interest over the Holidays was the leaking of a series of photographs purportedly taken of the Chengdu J-20, China’s fifth generation fighter aircraft.
A competitor to the F-22 Raptor, the J-20 is expected to attain initial operating capability by 2018 as testified by officials of the National Air …
Japan’s new National Defense Program Guidelines “will shape Japan’s defence policy for the next 10 years.”
A BBC article today outlines the crux of Japan’s most compelling strategic document:
Defences will be scaled down in the north, where they have been deployed since the Cold War to counter potential threats from the …
Sunday’s Wall Street Journal reports on Japan’s predicated intention to revise its maritime defense posture to address threats in the oceans South and West of the nation:
The shift will be the central theme of Tokyo’s new National Defense Program Guidelines, which will set the defense-policy framework for the next decade …
Leading political realist and Harvard professor Stephen M. Walt recently published an article in Foreign Policy which argues that realism is intrinsically at odds with the concept of American exceptionalism. While Walt’s construct of American exceptionalism may appear overly simplified for the sake of the argument, the article does …
