American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is headed to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China this week for a series of talks aimed at strengthening ties across the Pacific Ocean. Clinton has outlined that her priorities for her trip include: A more “rigorous and persistent commitment and engagement” with allies in Asia Working with Asian […]
Dennis Blair, the new national intelligence director, appeared before the United States Senate Committee on Intelligence on Thursday. Blair delivered the US intelligence community’s annual threat assessment to Congress. In Blair’s written testimony he highlighted the rise of Asia. “All together—Japan, the ‘tiger’ economies like South Korea and Taiwan as well as the rising giants […]
Successful solutions to the world’s most pressing issues – international trade, global financial institutions and regulations, nuclear proliferation, human rights, failed and fragile states, terrorism, poverty, health and diseases, energy and climate change – will increasingly rely on the cooperation and leadership of rising powers. Answers developed by the G7 group of rich countries without […]
It just so happens that today – the day our blog went live – a book on the issue of rising powers and the place of the United States in the world got featured in the New York Times. The book is Great Powers: America and the World After Bush by Thomas P. M. Barnett. […]
The end of the Cold War left the United States as the world’s sole superpower. The US enjoyed dominance in international affairs and theorists debated the future after the Soviet Union’s dissolution. Francis Fukuyama’s End of History differed from the Clash of Civilizations anticipated by Samuel Huntington. The 21st century could be the dawn of […]
Foreign Policy Beyond the Pentagon Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, believes that the United States’ foreign policy has become “too militarized.” US Vice President Offers Iran a Chance and a Choice In what appears to be a big shift in foreign policy, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden publicly reached out […]
President Obama is apparently working hard to keep his campaign pledges. He has now had his first interview with Al Arabiya, while repeating his promise to give a speech in a Muslim capital in the first 100 days of his administration. In some ways, President Obama's approach to the presidency feels like the campaign season […]
I watched the inaugural address of Barack Obama at a packed auditorium at New York University School of Law. When Obama said, "America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity" the room broke out into applause. In fact, there were about a […]
January 16 was Religious Freedom Day (the news was dominated by the miraculous landing of an airplane on the Hudson). Various religious organizations issued statements and press releases, while the Day itself even has its own website. The White House, on January 14, issued a press release to commemorate the annual recognition of the 1786 […]
Over the past month, there have been countless articles about the astounding fraud perpetrated by Bernard Madoff. Specifically, there have been several pieces about financial fraud and how schemes may target members of a particular religious community (in this case the Jewish community, and the multi-million dollar losses to American Jewish groups). The first article […]
The violence in Gaza and the current Israeli ground offensive have absolutely no direct connection to the politics of religion. Depending on your point of view, the key is either Israel's legitimate war on terror or the fundamental human rights of Palestinians. However, if you have been following the news reports of protests and statements […]
Time has listed the top ten news items connected to religion in 2008. The first article was about the economy and how the recession turned out to be far more important for voters in the presidential election than the politics of religion. David Van Biema wrote about how many incidents in the campaign centered on […]
Huber, the top Protestant Bishop in Germany, warned in his Christmas message that the financial markets have not been balanced by real values. According to a German news report, the bishop said the whole economic crisis is because of "a dance round the golden calf." In fact, most Christian religious leaders talked yesterday about the […]
It was surprising to see the pictures coming out of Malmo, Sweden this week. At first I thought the images were from Greece, but in fact similar rioting (though not nearly as serious) has also hit the Swedish city of Malmo after youths, who were squatting in a former Islamic center, clashed with police. The […]