Rising Powers

Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video” mce_href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a> Nandan Nilekani, Co-Chairman of Infosys and author of Imagining India, spoke with Fareed Zakaria about India’s economic potential on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS. Nilekani argues that India’s democracy is a strength in economic development, the country’s population is an asset not a liability and its “strategic opportunity is […]

Embedded video from <a href=”http://www.cnn.com/video” mce_href=”http://www.cnn.com/video”>CNN Video</a> United States President Barack Obama recently nominated Republican Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. as the next ambassador to China. President Obama reached into the Republican ranks for a key foreign policy position and likely removed one of his strongest potential challengers in the 2012 presidential campaign. During the […]

Yesterday, the Czech Republic hosted a joint EU-China summit that was originally scheduled for December.  The meeting was delayed then because of French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s meeting with the Dalai Lama.  This time, China made clear to tell the EU to stay out of its internal business.  2 main topics were on the agenda: the […]

Moody’s reports that, since the onset of the crisis, Latin American and Caribbean sovereigns sustained negative rating actions in only 5 out of 27 cases, versus 12 out of 21 in Eastern Europe. Similar trends can be found at the other major rating agencies (S&P and Fitch).

Nuclear-arms talks between the United States and Russia get underway today in Moscow. The negotiating teams are discussing a replacement for the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) that expires in December. Talks will address stronger verification procedures and might also tackle the issue of reducing both deployed warheads and stockpiles held in reserve. […]

The biggest land grab since the scramble for Africa is taking place under the sea. Last Wednesday was the ten-year deadline for most countries to submit claims over seabeds. States that have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea are able to claim extensions to their continental shelves beyond the normal […]

The internal power struggles in the Kremlin are still surprisingly hard to understand and predict. President Dmitry Medvedev was Vladimir Putin’s handpicked successor (Putin was constitutionally prevented from seeking a third consecutive term in office in 2008). At the time, many outside analysts and experts believed Medvedev would simply implement Putin’s desired policies and actions. […]

Thanks to my colleague Roger Scher for sending me an article from today’s New York Times concerning “Love Land” (I wrote about it yesterday: here).  It turns out Chinese authorities have had enough and have ordered the park to close.  Read more here.

A lot is going on in the Rising Powers at the moment, so why not begin the week with a survey of key developments and important news articles?

China is to have its first-ever sex theme park, to be called “Love Land”.  For a traditional country, the development seems quite radical.  The purpose of the park, located in Chongquing province, is to educate people about sex.  The park’s manager explains: “We are building the park for the good of the public… to help […]

The New York Times features an article today by Andrew E. Kramer concerning Russia’s gas worries.  Kramer explains that as gas prices (not to be confused with oil prices) fall, Russia’s state-run gas company Gazprom will suffer.  The main reason is because Gazprom is contractually obligated to purchase gas from its Central Asian former-soviet neighbors […]

Paul Krugman, columnist for the New York Times, wrote an op-ed this week arguing that China, the empire of carbon, “cannot continue along its current path because the planet can’t handle the strain.” China is the world’s leading producer of carbon dioxide and the country’s “emissions, which come largely from its coal-burning electricity plants, doubled […]

“Over the past several years, we have seen cyberattacks against critical infrastructures abroad, and many of our own infrastructures are as vulnerable as their foreign counterparts,” warned Dennis Blair, the United States Director of National Intelligence. “A number of nations, including Russia and China, can disrupt elements of the US information infrastructure.” Several commentators and […]

The New York Times this week has featured Op-Ed contributions discussing the weakness of the American Dollar and its potential fall as the world’s major reserve currency.  The only obvious choice for a successor to the Dollar is the Chinese renminbi, as argued by Nouriel Roubini.  As Roubini points out, major reserve currencies are held […]

Nigeria recently surpassed the United States as the world’s second largest film industry behind India. Bollywood produces the most movies in the world, followed by Nollywood and Hollywood. According to research conducted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), however, “US movies continue to dominate cinema admissions around the world.” In some […]