In The News

Poor Harvest Could Spell Hard Winter for Rural North Koreans

Eric Talmadge December 30, 2015
North Korea has an average income of about $1500 and the unemployment rate is about 25 percent. The country’s rural poor is suffering. “The combination of the limited variety of foods that are available and the stresses on the body from the frigid weather creates major hardship for most North Koreans,” writes Eric Talmadge for the Japan Times. “But winter is generally not the toughest time of...

Rethinking North Korean Missile Capabilities

Nah Liang Tuang December 23, 2015
North Korea conducted a flight test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile from a floating barge in November. “[E]ven as anti-DPRK watchers might feel a sense of schadenfreude when Pyongyang’s missile development team stumbles and falls, or even snigger at the lackluster qualities of their missiles, gloating is not only premature but ill-advised,” warns Nah Liang Tuang for the Diplomat. He...

Laser Beams Aimed at Aircraft at Atsugi Base

December 7, 2015
Laser pointers, a tool for business, are being used as a weapon. Pilots have filed reports about laser lights targeting their plans while flying over Europe, Japan and the United States. The light can flood cockpits, causing distraction and momentary vision problems. “Laserlike beams, possibly from pointers, have targeted U.S. military and Maritime Self-Defense Force aircraft at least 70 times...

Al Qaeda Captures 2 Yemen Towns

December 4, 2015
Patterns continue for the Middle East: a failure of power sharing and representation for countries with Shia-Sunni divisions, and religious extremists taking advantage of the instability and power vacuums. Al Qaeda has quickly wrested control of Zinjibar and Jaar in Yemen even as the government battles Houthi rebels. A coalition led by Saudi Arabia supports the government, and Iran supports the...

A War of Priorities in Syria

Chris Miller December 3, 2015
The international coalition targeting the Islamic State’s tenuous hold of communities in Syria and Iraq has divided interests that could prolong the war in Syria. “The war is driven by multiple, interlocking layers of conflict,” explains Chris Miller, associate director of the Grand Strategy Program at Yale and a fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. The priorities vary and desire to...

Gauging the ISIS Threat in Indonesia

December 2, 2015
Indonesia, with near 250 million people, is the world’s largest Muslim nation. The Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict in Jakarta estimates that 300 Indonesians headed to the Middle East; 100 of those have been killed and another 100 were detained and returned. “A video has been circulating in social media since Nov. 22, purporting to be from East Indonesian Mujahideen, a terrorist group...

China to Build Naval Hub in Djibouti

Jeremy Page and Gordon Lubold November 30, 2015
Djibouti, a former French colony, is a small economy that borders Yemen and Somalia, now described as stable. China is building its first naval installation in the former French economy, which will join “a U.S. military base that supports counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa and antipiracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden,” report Jeremy Page and Gordon Lubold for the Wall Street Journal...