In The News

Time for China and Japan to Cool It

James J. Przystup, Phillip C. Saunders February 27, 2013
A clash between China and Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands would be devastating for the global economy. The islands, historically under contention by China, Japan and Taiwan, have been subject of series of dangerous, escalating exchanges – including activists attempting landings and warships targeting opponent’s helicopters and ships with fire-control radars. “The immediate policy challenge...

CIA Shifts Hollywood Gaze to Its Best Side

Richard McGregor February 26, 2013
Portrayed as heroes, not villains, the CIA and the US military have emerged as Hollywood winners, suggests Richard McGregor in the Financial Times: “The shift in the CIA’s popular portrayal is more remarkable for the fact that it coincides with the agency’s drone programme, a campaign of offshore assassinations on a scale that used to provoke public and congressional scandals.” Argo, a movie...

The Europeanization of America

Mark Leonard February 26, 2013
The United States and Europe each are coping with heavy debt and the prospect of decline, argues Mark Leonard, co-founder and director of the European Council for Foreign Relations. Polarized electorates and clumsy austerity programs add to uncertainty and compound economic woes. Leonard suggests that the Obama administration admires the Germany economy and pursues policies of “energy...

India: Still at the Center of the Indian Ocean

Nilanthi Samaranayake February 22, 2013
Despite speculation to the contrary, India is far from losing strategic influence in the Indian Ocean region. Its security cooperation and relations with states like Sri Lanka, Maldives and Seychelles remain strong, maintains Nilanthi Samaranayake, an analyst in the Strategic Studies division at CNA, a research institute in Alexandria, Virginia. The recent cancellation of an Indian airport...

Kerry Makes Case for Robust Foreign Aid

Anne Gearan February 21, 2013
Foreign policy affects everyday lives, maintained John Kerry in his first address as US secretary of state. Kerry spoke at the University of Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson, and praised the third US president's global curiosity, an insistence on open minds and a campus open to all. Globalization won’t just go away, Kerry warned, adding the challenge is to tame its “worst impulses.” He...

Vietnam’s Economy Needs Reoriented Foreign Policy

David Brown February 20, 2013
After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the country’s Communist Party embraced a Soviet-style economic model. By the mid-1980s, the country’s elites could not help but compare results of Soviet and Chinese economic models and undertook Chinese-style reforms to enjoy globalization’s benefits. The surge of foreign investment capital since has led to reckless credit expansion and inflation. Businesses...

Will China Ever Be No. 1?

Graham Allison, Robert D. Blackwill February 20, 2013
Speculating on economic growth of nations has become a sporting event – with diplomats, policymakers and investors “placing their bets,” suggest Graham Allison and Robert Blackwill in a Foreign Policy essay, introducing the thesis of their book about Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore. As prime minister from 1959 to 1990, Lee monitored and advised Chinese and US leaders. Lee contends that China’s rapid...