Who should be included in the group of the world’s biggest emerging markets? Sure, the grouping could be the BRIC, BIC or even IC, but maybe it should be the iBRIC. According to a report in Bloomberg News, Morgan Stanley believes Indonesia should be included in the so-called BRIC countries along with Brazil, Russia, India […]
Is the global balance of power shifting from West to East? Minxin Pei, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argues in the latest issue of Foreign Policy that the hype about America’s decline and Asia’s rise is premature. Think Again: Asia’s Rise challenges the basic assumptions made about Asia’s emergence as a […]
China-Russia relations have markedly improved since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but potential problems between the neighboring giants loom on the horizon. David Shambaugh, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University, published an opinion piece this week in The New York Times saying that […]
In an op-ed published in papers in Brazil, Russia, India and China, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva argued that the BRIC Summit demonstrated a “commitment to help provide fresh answers to old problems and to offer bold leadership in the face of inertia and indecision.” “BRIC is more than just a grouping of […]
I applaud his hands-off approach, really quite unique for an American president, ensuring that conservatives in Iran have the least possible evidence of American interference in Iran’s affairs as possible. Yet the president should be careful in holding forth on foreign policy analytics, as he is not some snarky blogger seeking to impress readers, but rather the President of the United States…[…]
Sadjadpour: We have to get inside the head of Ayatollah Khamenei…his world view is very clear. When you’re under siege, never compromise. Because if you compromise it’s going to project weakness. If he orders a mayor clampdown, I think we may start to see fissures within the regime’s shock troops. […]
It seems all the news is buzzing about it. BRIC is suddenly real. Its first-ever summit, coinciding with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit in Yekaterinburg (see my last post) has launched the 4-nation bloc onto the world stage and has elevated the acronym BRIC into the realm of common diplomatic parlance. Some news sources are […]
My colleague David Kampf pointed out that the BRIC leaders are meeting tomorrow in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Before the BRIC meeting, however, an equally important and significant meeting took place today in the same location. The six heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) met for a small summit. The summit will continue tomorrow […]
Netanyahu basically said in his speech, Here is our position; now come to us. He has adopted the Arab strategy: stake out a hard line and let others begin concessions. Netanyahu has stood up to Barack Obama, maybe not the last foreign leader to do so. […]
The leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China will meet this Tuesday in Yekaterinburg, Russia for the first official BRIC summit. The emerging markets are looking for greater global clout. During the gathering, the BRIC leaders are set to discuss the economic downturn, possible reforms for international financial institutions and long-term options for a new […]
Iran is ruled by a small group of clerics, desperate to stay in power. They have opened enough avenues of expression to channel social pressures. This give-and-take can become a game of chicken that the authoritarians in the end ultimately lose. […]
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was criticized by some members of the human rights community when she said that pressing China on human rights “can’t interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis.” Clinton made her comments in February before arriving in China to foster warmer ties […]
Christopher Hitchens, on Slate.com, has written a piece on Guantanamo Bay and the current Presidential policies that has made me re-consider my understanding of tolerance (at least for a time). After much consideration, though, I have to say that this Hitchens article is not very compelling. He basically argues that the Guantanamo Bay Prison Camps […]
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has an ambitious 100-day plan. Jason Overdorf and Sudip Mazumdar detail Singh’s bold domestic agenda in the current issue of Newsweek International. The “surprisingly decisive victory” for the Congress Party and Singh in last month’s election has raised expectations for India to realize its potential. While the leaders still face […]
The U.S. and its allies in Europe are undergoing exactly what Paul Kennedy warned against over twenty years ago in his book, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. Sovereign financial solvency is the foundation on which military and political power can be projected, and this foundation crumbles when governments ignore deteriorating finances. Governments today must act quickly to cut deficits, once signs of a durable recovery are clear.