In The News

The American Leak

Thomas L. Friedman December 7, 2010
The steady release of cables, written by US diplomats, demonstrate a convoluted, counterproductive US foreign policy. The US enters alliances with countries that do not share its expressed values, then tries to deny the differences. New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman uses cables about Saudi Arabia by way of example, detailing the contradictions that emerge from US reliance on Saudi oil:...

Asking China to Act Like the US

Helene Cooper December 6, 2010
US leaders show little understanding as to why China balks at acting against its own national interests on democracy, currency, trade surpluses, climate change and many other issues, notes Helene Cooper for the New York Times. Complete acquiescence from China on US policies would serve American interests, not necessarily China’s or the world’s. Cooper focuses on the two nations’ responses to...

The WikiLeaks Ravage – Part I

Shyam Saran December 6, 2010
WikiLeaks has set out to display 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables, dated 1966 to 2010, exposing blunt US assessments, tactics and conjecture. For the well read, the cables reveal much hypocrisy, but few surprises. This two-part YaleGlobal series explores the consequences of the unprecedented leak from the points of view of diplomacy and internet freedom. The latest release about vital US...

Can China Afford to Confront the World? – Part II

Pichamon Yeophantong November 30, 2010
China and the US battle for influence over Asian security and economic matters. In second part of this two-part YaleGlobal series, researcher Pichamon Yeophantong suggests that China’s aggressive push for resources meets with quiet resistance from China’s Southeast Asian neighbors. “Having close historical ties to both China and the US, ASEAN members frequently find themselves at the receiving...

Farewell to the Age of the Treaty

James P. Rubin November 29, 2010
US ratification of international treaties requires 67 of 100 votes in the Senate, a near impossible feat in a nation deeply divided over its future direction. Any individual senator can upend negotiations by demanding special treatment or funding. Such is the case with the new Start treaty between Russia and the US, with one senator demanding a nuclear-weapons modernization program that defies...

Can China Afford to Confront the World? – Part I

Jonathan Fenby November 25, 2010
China’s emersion into free-market capitalism, starting in 1978 under Deng Xiaoping, was gradual and cautious. Now the world’s second largest economy, China often clashes with its largest trade partner, the United States, most recently over currency revaluation measures at the G20 meeting in Seoul. This two-part YaleGlobal series analyzes China’s new assertiveness, both regionally and with the US...

The World Is Adrift as Nations Skirmish

Kishore Mahbubani November 23, 2010
As the world becomes totally integrated, organizing principles and institutional structures have not kept up. Members of the G-20, the global group of powerful economies, continue to jockey, avoiding the tough assessments and sacrifices required to resolve pressing global issues from climate change and terrorism to economic crises. Former Singapore diplomat and author Kishore Mahbubani relies on...