In The News

The Diplomat: Plans for South China Sea Nuclear Power Plants

Viet Phuong Nguyen May 11, 2018
Environmentalists express concerns about a floating nuclear power plant, the Akademik Lomonosov, dispatched by Russia in late April to the Arctic. China also plans as many as 20 floating nuclear reactors in the South China Sea: “In 2016, two major Chinese state-owned nuclear suppliers, the China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) and China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), announced a plan to...

Financial Times: Europe to Seek Exemptions From US Sanctions on Iran

Anne-Sylvaine Chassany, Michael Peel and Tobias Buck May 9, 2018
European leaders met with Donald Trump, detailing their opposition to US exit from the Iran nuclear deal, contending that the agreement was working and that adjustments could be made. Regardless, Trump exited the deal and promised sanctions on countries that do business with Iran. Europe could stand to lose the most from the new sanctions. “EU leaders said they would press Washington to exempt...

Times of India: The Wuhan Puzzle

Nayan Chanda May 7, 2018
China and India, the world’s two most populous nations, are rivals for trade and regional influence. A two-day summit between Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi may have been a quest for cooperation and Nayan Chanda, writing for the Times of India, refers to a Mao Zedong theory on setting priorities: “In his famous work ‘On Contradiction,’ Mao stated successful policy depends on identifying the...

Reuters: What Could Iran Do if US Drops Nuclear Deal?

Babak Dehghanpisheh May 3, 2018
Reuters reports that US President Trump is expected to pull the United States out of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. The move could signal that democracies are not reliable long-term partners. Babak Dehghanpisheh lists scenarios by which Iran could make trouble for US interests in the Middle East in many ways. Iranian-supported militias fighting extremists in Iraq and Syria could target US...

Haaretz: Netanyahu Says Iran Nuclear Deal Is Based on Lies

Noa Landau May 1, 2018
With a document release, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintains that Iran has deceived the world about its ambitions for nuclear weapons. “Netanyahu referred to a secret Iranian nuclear project, codenamed ‘Amad, which he said had been shelved in 2003, though he said work in the field had continued,” reports Noa Landau for Haaretz. In a news conference, he claimed Iran lied about...

Inside Story: Domestic Disharmony for China and India

Kerry Brown and Marya Shakil April 27, 2018
Before aspiring to global leadership roles, China’s Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi must demonstrate capability for handling domestic challenges. “Xi and Modi may operate in very different contexts, one in charge of the world’s largest Communist Party–controlled state, the other running the world’s largest democracy,” explain Kerry Brown and Marya Shakil for Inside Story. “But both can be...

Foreign Affairs: Reflexive Hostility to Russia Harms US Interests

Emma Ashford April 25, 2018
Many US leaders automatically adopt a tough stance on Russia to counter the US president’s reticence: “bipartisan enmity toward Russia has pushed even Trump, whose rhetoric on the country often vacillates between open hostility and admiration, to adopt reflexively hawkish policies, from purposeless sanctions to nuclear saber rattling,” notes Emma Ashford for Foreign Affairs. She encourages...