Brazil reportedly agreed to pay billions of dollars for 36 French fighter jets. The purchase follows the deal between France and Brazil in December to jointly build five submarines and France is also selling 50 military helicopters to Latin America’s rising power. The moves will help Brazil protect its borders and defend its valuable natural […]
Mexico still remains two notches above Brazil due to sticky credit ratings and the inability of the rating agencies to take dramatic action. Such dramatic rating action would suggest that rating agency analysts have been wrong for some time.
The most interesting article I’ve come across recently concerns Morocco and the spread of Islamic radicalism. Although articles are being published practically every second on “Islamic radicals,” Steven Erlanger’s and Souad Mekhennet’s piece in the New York Times alerts readers to an element of the spread of radicalism that is often overlooked by foreign policy […]
It was certainly a dramatic and convincing victory, but how much will it really change Japan? In the recent election, the opposition Democratic Party of Japan routed the Liberal Democratic Party, who had been in practically uninterrupted control for the past half century. The landslide triumph is a historic break from the past, but is […]
Size. Strength. Potential. Neighbors. The world’s two fastest rising powers – China and India – are often considered strategic rivals, not close friends. Sure, Beijing and Delhi often sing the same tune in international powwows, but their differences are real and could become more pronounced. Beijing and Delhi largely agree on climate change, trade and […]
Should America be a great power? If so, can the United States remain a great power? Christian Brose, senior editor at Foreign Policy, and Rachel Kleinfeld, president of the Truman National Security Project, debate the future of the world’s hegemon and rising heavyweights on bloggingheads.tv. Christian Brose argues that “the greatest advantage that the United […]
Angering China, Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou announced yesterday that the Dalai Lama will visit southern Taiwan next week. Beijing is always irritated when the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, travels abroad and the government often issues strong rebukes to foreign hosts. Last November Mr. Ma stopped the Dalai Lama from coming, but Mr. Ma […]
On Tuesday, South Korea launched its first rocket but failed to put the satellite in its planned orbit. Russia helped build the rocket after the United States refused due to worries that a regional arms race could take off. “With all its neighbors – China, Japan and North Korea – pursuing space programs, South Korea […]
Back in 2007, Niall Ferguson and Moritz Schularick wrote about “Chimerica” or the “symbiotic economic relationship” developing between China and the United States in International Finance. “Not only has plentiful Chinese and Asian labor increased global returns to capital; Chinese excess savings have also depressed US and global interest rates.” China did the saving and […]
America’s decline is a false prophecy. Writing in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs and yesterday’s International Herald Tribune, Josef Joffe, co-editor of Die Zeit and a fellow at the Hoover Institution, argues that even though it is fashionable again to speak of America’s fall and the rise of others, the United States will remain […]
The question is: Was it the right for the United States to announce its withdrawal from Iraq in order to focus on the war in Afghanistan? See this link for a video on the bomb attacks in Iraq. Attacks in Iraq. Source: NYTimes Arguments on both sides of the issue are convincing. Obama got elected […]
Cheng Li, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, details the growing importance of think tanks in China in the China Leadership Monitor. Think tanks and so-called “super think tanks” are organizing conversations and international exchanges to better understand the global challenges that China will face in the coming years. But he also notes that “in […]
Fitch Ratings, one of the three global rating agencies, published reports this week on the state of play in Russia. The government of Russia’s BBB rating was affirmed, but the Outlook for the rating (i.e., where the rating is likely to go in the next two years) remains negative. Russia has been more negatively affected by […]
Dilma Rousseff, the less-than-glamorous heir-apparent to Brazil’s leftist President Lula, is being accused of exerting pressure on a government official to whitewash an investigation into a political ally. See FT article on the subject. These corruption investigations snarl Brazil’s Congress all the time, and some blow over, while others balloon. What will happen to this one could affect […]
The FT reports today that China is extending a much-needed $1 billion loan to the government of Ecuador, one of the worst-run countries on the planet, as a downpayment on oil deliveries to the Asian juggernaut. Ecuador has oil, as well as other assets, including in tourism (for example, the Galapagos Islands, the Andes, and […]