In The News

Pakistan’s Dangerous Double Game

Ron Moreau September 16, 2008
After the 9/11 attacks, planned by Al Qaeda in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, Pakistan and the US linked up as allies in the “war on terror” declared by George Bush. The Taliban have long since scattered, many to the rugged Pakistan-Afghanistan border area, and regrouped in camps. The US alludes to an agreement, possibly made with former President Pervez Musharraf, that allows its troops to cross the...

Maliki Votes for Obama

Charles Krauthammer July 29, 2008
The US underestimated the difficulties of invading Iraq and how long the war would last. Now Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki must prepare to deal with a new US commander in chief. By accepting Obama's campaign goal of removing US troops from Iraq sooner rather than later, Maliki indicates an opinion that the war has been won, with Al Qaeda defeated and Sunni-Shiite conflicts under...

For Talks to Succeed, China Must Admit to a Tibet Problem

Michael C. Davis May 16, 2008
China’s hard-line policy towards Tibet creates more problems than it solves. Beijing’s recent crackdown on Tibetan protesters has attracted condemnation from around the world, but did nothing to address the underlying problems in Tibet itself. If Beijing is serious about securing Tibet’s long-term future as part of China, it needs to put aside its past enmity towards the Dalai Lama – and...

Superclass and the Inequity of Globalization

David Rothkopf May 14, 2008
The free-market principles that drive global trade of goods, services and ideas often run counter to notions of institutional regulation. According to David Rothkopf, author and visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, this void in global governance has facilitated the rise of a “superclass” of elites, numbering about 6,000, whose actions impact millions of lives. The...

Designing Asia

Ellen L. Frost May 12, 2008
Growing Chinese economic clout combined with a sympathetic diplomatic posture has helped reorient the power structure of Southeast Asia toward China. A China-led Pacific trade network of port cities, stretching from Australia to India, echoes “pre-colonial 'Maritime Asia,'” explains author Ellen Frost. The re-emergence of maritime Asia is not without challenges – for example, such a...

So Clinton Was Right About Beijing and Jello

Richard McGregor May 8, 2008
Spreading rumors about the dangers of outside forces is easy – and even intelligent and warm people fall prey by reading and joining online attacks. In the 1990s, former US President Bill Clinton compared attempts to control political talk on the internet to “nailing Jello to a wall.” Unfortunately, anyone who hopes to promote accurate discourse faces similar challenges as rumors associated with...

China Ascendant – Part I

Bertil Lintner April 25, 2008
Athletes and Chinese guards bearing the Olympic torch cut a swath through those supporting and protesting a rising China. In this series, YaleGlobal examines the impact of China’s ascendancy. China’s economic growth has given it new resources which, when doled out internationally, have the power to shift diplomatic allegiances. In Southeast Asia, China relies on a strategy of giving below-market...