China sent the diplomatic world into a spin on November 23 by declaring an Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) in the East China Sea. This is cause for some concern, given the state of Sino-Japanese relations. The concern has been boosted by some vague and rather provocative Chinese statements but also by the fact that […]
In a rare slap in the face to Beijing, last week the U.S. flew two of its unarmed B-52 bombers into China’s newly-established East China Sea Air Defense Identification Zone. The air defense zone had been recently created in order to assert Beijing’s claim to disputed territorial waters of the East China Sea and to […]
Hosted by Sarwar Kashmeri, the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions podcast series will headline issues together with the leaders whose decisions today will mold the foreign policy of tomorrow. Each podcast will tackle a different Great Decisions topic in the 2014 series, a list of which can be found here. The Great Decisions podcasts can also […]
AP Photo: David Guttenfelder With the official death toll from Typhoon Haiyan topping 4,000 on Wednesday, nations from around the world are ramping up their efforts to help the Philippines deal with over 1,600 missing persons, 700,000 damaged houses and the nearly 10 million people affected. Australia, Britain and the U.S. have so far each […]
China and the United States held their Sixth China-U.S. Sub-Dialogue on Latin America this past week discussing their future policies on Latin America. The annual consultation was created to demonstrate how cooperation and a reduction in misunderstandings could promote increased trade in the region by both parties as well as avoid possible conflicts of interest […]
Expect the number of nuclear weapons in Asia to increase over the short to medium term according the latest edition of Strategic Asia 2013-14, aptly titled Asia in the Second Nuclear Age. Nuclear states across the region are all looking to further develop or enhance their nuclear arsenals, namely Pakistan, India, China and North Korea. […]
Singapore is the easiest place in the world for small- and medium-sized domestic companies to do business, with Hong Kong and New Zealand trailing immediately behind, and Malaysia and South Korea rounding out the Asia-Pacific region’s representation in the top 10, according to a World Bank study released late last month. The institution’s “Doing […]
There is an infamous line from a speech made by U.S. President Lyndon Johnson at Johns Hopkins University in 1965 during which he was attempting to rationalize American involvement in Southeast Asia to the skeptical public. “We want nothing for ourselves,” he said “only that the people of South Vietnam be allowed to guide their […]
In a 15-14 vote, Greenland’s parliament voted to overturn the long-standing ban on uranium mining. The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed in a memo that it supported the decision given that Greenland has maintained control over its mineral resources since 2010. While the decision was close, the lifting of the ban should not come […]
The best long form reads and blog posts for the week of October 25. 2013.
For all the talk of China and the Arctic, there’s one dark horse that definitely made itself known at the Arctic Circle: Singapore. With a speech that hit all the right notes, Sam Tan Chin Siong, Senior Parliamentary Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a Member of Parliament, described the contributions Singapore can […]
How serious is China about “the introduction of a new reserve currency to replace the dominant U.S. dollar,” one of its proposed steps for creating the “de-Americanized world” that the official Xinhua news agency called for in the run-up to the denouement-cum-deferral of the U.S. fiscal crisis? American commentators’ responses have ranged from the […]
In a recent communication (see below) from the French Foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, announced a possible new reform of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Such announce is not surprising as France has been for quite some time been in favor of an enlargement of the U.N. Security Council, when declaring “France is in favour of […]
This week marks the celebration of a “Golden Week” of public holidays in China, during which millions of Chinese people take vacations, many of which will be abroad. Prior to this holiday week, which officially began on October 1, China’s National Tourism Administration publicized a 64-page guidebook on their website, entitled “Guidebook for Civilized Tourism,” […]
A central focus of this blog is handicapping the global power sweepstakes between the United States and China. And a regular theme here is the role private enterprise is playing in revitalizing U.S. strategic power – whether it’s in the resurgence of the manufacturing sector or in launching the oil and natural gas boom (here […]