In The News

Reuters: China’s Xi and the World

Peter Marino February 28, 2018
China plans to scrap term limits for its president, consolidating Xi Jinping’s power and reducing power for others in the Communist Party. Some in China contend the move promotes stability, but Peter Marino, writing for Reuters, suggests that assessing political events could become more challenging for insiders or outsiders assessing the country: “Xi has fractured what remains of global models...

The Economist: The Balfour Declaration

November 10, 2017
While the Balfour Declaration was not as strong as Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann had hoped when ratified in 1917 as it turns out, the public statement of support issued by the British government during World War I for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine did reinforce the settler project and deliver Israeli statehood. According to the Economist, “...

The Telegraph: Indian Independence Day

Barney Henderson August 16, 2017
This August marks 70 years since the Great Partition divided British India into two independent nations: India and Pakistan. The Indian independence movement engaged in non-violent struggle under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and diplomacy efforts in international forums in the wake of the Second World War, just as the old British and French empires were on the verge of collapse. As Barney...

Reconstruction of Chinese History for a Peaceful Rise

Suisheng Zhao June 13, 2017
China is rising and its leaders vow this rise will be peaceful. A shared history can be a motivating force, binding citizens together. “Some leaders, though, selectively use historical memories to serve political and strategic objectives,” explains Suisheng Zhao, professor and director of the Center for China-US Cooperation at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver...

The Diplomat: Will Central Asia Water Wars Derail China's Silk Road?

Nishtha Chugh March 31, 2017
China continues to expand influence with its modern version of the Silk Road, a “prodigiously bold economic ambition to connect with potentially 40 countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa,” reports Nishtha Chugh. “The vast economic corridors and infrastructural network, when fully functional, will potentially give China unprecedented access to 60 percent of the world’s population and a third of...

Foreign Affairs: The Vatican and China Reach a Promising Accord

Victor Gaetan March 30, 2017
In February, the Bishop of Hong Kong announced that Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pope Francis have negotiated a compromise in the selection of Chinese bishops, a critical religious disagreement that has festered since the 1950s. Although Chinese state and religious authorities will “recommend episcopal candidates,” the pope has veto power and hence “final authority,” reports Victor Gaetan for...

Argentina Omits Falkland Islands from Map; Online Uproar Swiftly Follows

Federico Rivas Molina January 11, 2017
Many Argentines were outraged when the Social Development Ministry of Argentina posted a New Year’s greeting on Twitter, and a map of the country failed to include Antarctica and the Falkland Islands, or Islas Malvinas, in Spanish. Veterans of the 1982 Falklands War, in which Argentina unsuccessfully attempted to claim sovereignty over the islands, were particularly upset. The incident coincides...