In The News

Apec 2013: China Grabs Limelight With US Hobbled

October 11, 2013
The US government shutdown in Washington forced President Obama to cancel his visit to Bali for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Secretary John Kerry attended the summit in his place, the US may lose ground to an assertive China, reports Agence France-Presse. China’s President Xi Jinping, talking to leaders from various countries, touts free trade deals and addresses disquiet in the...

Latin America: Anti-US in Words, Not Deeds

Luisa Parraguez, Francisco Garcia Gonzalez, Joskua Tadeo October 1, 2013
An avalanche of secrets exposed by a former National Security Agency contract worker is complicating US relations with southern neighbors. Reports allege that the United States spied on countries regardless of poor or good relations. Stopping the Bolivian president’s plane in Europe for a few hours to search for Edward Snowden may be a hiccup compared with allegations that the NSA compromised...

Myanmar, North Korea Stay Brothers in Arms

Bertil Lintner September 24, 2013
While the US has restored relations with Myanmar, ongoing improvement hinges on the latter severing ties with North Korea. The US publicly emphasizes democracy and human rights for the nation once known as Burma, suggests journalist Bertil Lintner in Asia Times, yet “Myanmar has emerged as the frontline of the Obama administration's 'pivot' towards Asia, or, in plain language, the...

Did Brazil's President Just Knock Down US Influence a Notch or Two?

James Norton September 18, 2013
Leaked data about secret US National Security Agency surveillance of foreign countries have claimed another casualty. Upset over alleged NSA spying of Brazilian government and institutions, President Dilma Rousseff has put off a late October visit to the United States, where she was to be honored with a state dinner. James Norton writes for the Christian Science Monitor that Rousseff describes...

Botanical Bandits: Rampant Poaching Threatens Ginseng’s Survival

Jake Frankel September 9, 2013
The delicate plant with tiny red berries has drawn thousands of scavengers to Appalachia forests, digging up roots of the ginseng plant, wiping out entire groves, for sale to Asian markets. “[W]ith wild ginseng root fetching upward of $800 a pound, untold numbers of poachers have taken to local forests, overwhelming meager law enforcement resources and leaving the plant’s survival in doubt,”...

Amid Mideast Turmoil, What Does Russia Want?

Thomas Graham August 20, 2013
Russia has reasons to resist military intervention in Syria. “Moscow has been resolute in the defense of the principle of state sovereignty in the traditional Westphalian sense, of non-interference by outside powers in the internal affairs of another state, a principle it considers to be the foundation of world order and international law,” explains Thomas Graham, senior fellow with Yale...

Don’t Cry For Me, Motown

Nayan Chanda August 19, 2013
Detroit was a US auto manufacturing center a few decades ago, but now its population of 700,000, down from 2 million, cannot afford to pay off $18 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities. The city has filed for bankruptcy. “Outsourcing, automation and suburbanisation have drained its population” and “the bankruptcy of what used to be the country’s fourth-largest city does indeed signal the...