In The News

Eurozone Strikes Greek Deal With Tough Conditions

Paul Taylor and Renee Maltezou July 13, 2015
Greece accepted tough conditions – tougher than those rejected by Greek voters in a referendum – in exchange for aid from fellow members of the Eurozone. Greek leaders must submit public policy proposals and spending plans to bailout monitors. Aid is contingent on Greece meeting “a tight timetable for enacting unpopular reforms of value added tax, pensions, budget cuts if Greece misses fiscal...

Greece’s Russian Fantasy; Russia’s European Delusion

Pavel K. Baev July 10, 2015
Greeks, well informed about their status as borrowers in advance with bank closures and limits on withdrawals, rejected foreign creditors’ conditions for aid in a referendum. “Many Greeks see Russia as a state that upholds its sovereignty and defies the EU diktat,” writes Pavel K. Baev for Brookings. Russia, sanctioned for its military interventions in Ukraine, has its own economic struggles with...

Modi’s Visit to China Marks New Tone, But No Concrete Progress

Neelam D Sabharwal June 16, 2015
Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have set a new tone for India's relations with China, yet personal rapport and economic interdependence offer little guarantee of settling longstanding strategic issues that divide the world’s two most populous nations, warns Neelam D Sabharwal, a former Indian ambassador to the Netherlands and UNESCO, now associate professor with the University of Maastricht...

Headwinds as the US Moves Toward Secretive Trade Agreement

David Dapice May 19, 2015
The very notion of global trade would suggest openness – and certainly a lack of secrets. But the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a new kind of agreement, one that pushes deep integration and focuses on regulations for corporations as well as lower tariffs, explains economist David Dapice. Twelve nations including the United States, Japan, Australia, Canada, Mexico – but not China – are...

China Expands Island Construction in Disputed South China Sea

Jeremy Page and Julian E. Barnes February 20, 2015
China has muted its claims, while quietly constructing artificial islands on top of four reefs, along with piers, a cement plant and landing place for helicopters, as shown by commercial satellite images, report Jeremy Page and Julian E. Barnes for the Wall Street Journal. “China appears to be building a network of island fortresses to help enforce control of most of the South China Sea – one of...

New Ceasefire Points Toward Frozen Conflict in Ukraine

David R. Cameron February 12, 2015
A ceasefire in the fighting for eastern Ukraine was announced after leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine met in Minsk. But a ceasefire alone may not produce a comprehensive settlement or an enduring peace, warns David R. Cameron, professor of political science at Yale University. “That requires resolution of the underlying, and possibly intractable, dispute over the constitutional form...

Economic Interests Attract China to Russia

Wang Yiwei February 3, 2015
With its invasion of Crimea and intervention in eastern Ukraine, Russia invited condemnation and sanctions from the West and had little choice but to tighten ties with China. Stronger Sino-Russian relations prompt some analysts to compare China and Russia. “China should take such questions and comparisons seriously – making it clear through public diplomacy that the country is not like Russia,”...